President Donald Trump\u2019s personal lawyer said that should special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigators seek a court order to compel the president to testify, Trump\u2019s lawyers would fight such a subpoena all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, if necessary.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s legal team would advise that he refuse to submit to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller unless the team can review classified information shared with select lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia\u2019s election meddling, Trump\u2019s personal lawyer said Sunday.
Rudy Giuliani said that should Mueller\u2019s investigators seek a court order to compel the president to testify, Trump\u2019s lawyers would fight such a subpoena all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
\u201cI think we win it,\u201d Giuliani said.
Giuliani downplayed the chances that Trump would fire Mueller, a Republican who once was FBI director and has served under GOP presidents. Asked if Trump would dismiss anyone if the investigation kept going, Giuliani told \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d that firings would play \u201cinto the hands of playing the victim, Watergate.\u201d
Giuliani\u2019s public negotiation over terms of an interview focuses on the use of a government informant who approached members of Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has made unproven claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the informant, without evidence, as \u201ca spy.\u201d
The two meetings with select lawmakers, held last Thursday, were requested by Trump\u2019s GOP allies in Congress and were arranged by the White House. The president has tried to sow suspicions about the legitimacy of the FBI investigation, and he and his allies have focused on the use of the informant. After the meetings, which included Justice Department officials, FBI officials, congressional leaders from both parties and Democratic and Republican leaders of the intelligence committees, Democrats said they saw no evidence to support Republican allegations that the FBI acted inappropriately.
Nonetheless, Giuliani said the Trump camp wants access to the material presented at those briefings to help prepare the president for a possible interview with Mueller.
\u201cIf they don\u2019t show us these documents, well, we are just going to have to say, \u2018No,\u2019 \u201d Giuliani said. It\u2019s unclear, however, if Trump would heed his lawyers\u2019 advice.
Justice Department officials didn\u2019t immediately return a message seeking comment on whether the president had requested a briefing similar to what was provided to members of Congress last week.
In a separate television appearance, Giuliani said Trump was \u201cadamant\u201d about wanting to agree to an interview, saying, \u201cIf he wasn\u2019t thinking about it and it wasn\u2019t an active possibility, we would be finished with that by now and we would have moved on to getting the investigation over with another way.\u201d
The new wrinkle, he said, if the disclosure about the informant.
\u201cWe are more convinced, as we see it, that this is a rigged investigation. Now we have this whole new \u2018Spygate\u2019 thing thrown on top of it, on top of already very legitimate questions,\u201d he told CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d
Giuliani also raised the specter of a protracted legal fight over the question of a Trump interview if Mueller decided to seek a subpoena.
\u201cWhat we have to do is go to court and seek protection from the court, if we have to do that. Our first thing is we sure as heck are not going to testify unless it\u2019s all straightened out, unless we learned the basis of that Russian investigation,\u201d Giuliani told Fox.<\/p>\n

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