Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, in an article published yesterday in a “Think” column of NBC News outlines 3 reasons why Mueller may not subpoena Trump at all.
First, Mueller may have gathered so much evidence that he can reach informed conclusions about how to proceed without securing the president’s testimony. Given that prosecutors invariably take a “more is more” approach to developing evidence, I think this possibility is less than likely.
Second, given that the president’s lawyers have argued (incorrectly, in my opinion) that a sitting president cannot be subpoenaed to the grand jury, it may be that Mueller wants to avoid the protracted litigation that would erupt concerning the legality/enforceability of such a subpoena. Although this is a distinct possibility, I strongly suspect that Mueller is prepared to take as much time as needed to conduct a full investigation. Accordingly, the delay occasioned by having to fight a legal battle over a presidential grand jury subpoena is probably not driving his decisions.
The third possibility — and one that I suggest is growing more likely by the day — is that evidentiary developments in the investigation may have moved the president from being a “subject” of the investigation to being a “target.” If this is the case, then Department of Justice policies would strongly argue against using a grand jury subpoena to compel the president to testify.
Kirschner goes on to say that it is common practice not to subpoena a target. He points out that to have a target appear in front of a Grand Jury invites claims of privilege and fifth amendment rights. Then he cites the fact that Manafort, Gates and several other people indicted were never subpoenaed but were indicted.
Last week when the Russian Agent indictments were made, I, and probably most people wondered why details like the July 27th request by don the con for Clinton’s email from the Russians were included. My opinion is that there was a message aimed squarely at Donald J Trump. We know what you did and have proof of it. When one considers the details that were revealed, Mueller may just be waiting for the right time to spring the news on Trump. That news could come in the form of a report to the Justice Department or maybe even an indictment, if Mueller want’s to be controversial.