{"id":30981,"date":"2018-01-26T05:45:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T10:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=30981"},"modified":"2018-01-25T20:41:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T01:41:04","slug":"trumps-testimony-under-oath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/01\/trumps-testimony-under-oath\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Testimony Under Oath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Ariel_Castro_FBI_interrogation\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President Trump has said that he is willing to testify under oath <\/a>in Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation.\u00a0 The president said that his attorneys are working out the details and that the interrogation will take place within two or three weeks.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it actually,\u201d\u00a0he added.\u00a0 \u201cThere has been no collusion whatsoever, there has been no obstruction whatsoever,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI would do it under oath, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This confidence suggests that he has nothing to hide.\u00a0 But this kind of testimony is always perilous.<\/p>\n

Imagine that you are being investigated by the F.B.I. for something that you didn\u2019t do.\u00a0 You are as innocent as Adam before the Fall.\u00a0 In your testimony, you told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.<\/p>\n

But what you said did not jibe with what two other witnesses told the FBI.\u00a0 Maybe they were not being as truthful as you were.\u00a0 Or, more likely, you spoke from your sphere of knowledge, but you did not know the whole story, so that you said something mistaken.<\/p>\n

FBI:\u00a0 \u201cDo you know Boris Badenov?\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU:\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0I\u2019ve never heard of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI: \u201cHave you ever met him?\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU:\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the FBI has a photograph of you and Boris shaking hands.\u00a0 You meet lots of people and shake a lot of hands, but you don\u2019t remember their names and don\u2019t know who they all are.\u00a0 \u00a0Now the FBI has caught you lying, under oath, in a federal investigation.\u00a0 You have committed a felony.\u00a0 Your testimony might include several misstatements like this.\u00a0 Each\u00a0count of\u00a0false statement in a federal investigation could earn you five years in prison.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

When you walked into the interrogation room, the FBI had nothing on you.\u00a0 You were innocent of all of the charges that they were investigating.\u00a0 But after your testimony, you are a criminal, and the FBI can prove it.<\/p>\n

Now imagine that you are being investigated and that you are innocent.\u00a0 But that you have a problem of being careless with your words.\u00a0 You have a habit of saying whatever is on your mind, regardless of the consequences.\u00a0 Your ego is such that you can\u2019t take criticism, so that you lash out at any slight.\u00a0 And you regularly toss out statements that tie fact checkers up in knots.<\/p>\n

Already in this investigation, the Special Counsel has indicted Trump advisors\u00a0Michael Flynn<\/a> and Paul Manafort\u00a0<\/a>for making false statements to the FBI.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they were not so innocent as you are, in our hypothetical cases, but the point is,\u00a0this\u00a0is an easy way to get indictments, even when there is no evidence of any other crimes.\u00a0 And that Mueller is fond of this approach means that President Trump needs to be uncharacteristically careful about what he says.<\/p>\n

There could be \u201cno collusion whatsoever\u201d and \u201cno obstruction whatsoever,\u201d but\u00a0if\u00a0the president\u2019s testimony does not accord with what the FBI already has, he could be charged with a crime that could be grounds for impeachment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 FBI interrogation of Ariel Castro, by FBI [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump has said that he is willing to testify under oath in Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation.\u00a0 The president said that his attorneys are working out the details and that the interrogation will take place within two or three weeks.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it actually,\u201d\u00a0he added.\u00a0 \u201cThere has been no collusion whatsoever, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":30994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[5014,2906,6091,4923,5438,5458],"class_list":["post-30981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-law","tag-donald-trump-russia","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-making-false-statements","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-robert-mueller","tag-trump-investigation"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's Testimony Under Oath<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump has agreed to testify in the investigation of his administration. 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