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WASHINGTON – As the White House and Congress intensify their constitutional clashes, President Trump and his team are essentially trying to call what they see as the bluffing of Democrats. The message: Go up or close. Charge or move on.
Confident that there is not enough voice to revoke him by impeachment in the Senate, Mr. Trump and his advisors have chosen the path of maximum resistance, calculating that they can put Democrats on the defensive in a politically useful fight for the president.
The decision to assert the executive's privilege and defy the subpoenas is consistent with Trump's natural fighting instinct and is consistent with the grievance he try to convince him. The president seems to want to force the hands of the Democrats who are investigating him as if they were conducting an imputation investigation without saying so and risking one of the political problems that might ensue from it.
"If it's an impeachment proceeding, someone should call it that," said Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the council's personal attorneys. President. "If you do not call their bluff now, they will continue to slide for four, five or six months."
"It's a valid strategy to test: what are you doing?"
Democrats recognize what is happening. "Trump urges us to remove him," said President Nancy Pelosi this week at an event at Cornell University in Manhattan. Until now, they have neither taken bait nor retreated.
Mr. Trump's advisers stated that there was no comprehensive strategy at the White House and that they simply remained on the same level of war as from the day he took office more than two years ago. The battle of Trump is only a natural state in the White House. Resisting Congressional Summons is the first reaction of many Presidents, even though he has gone a step further and said he will refuse them.
Mr. Trump has focused in recent days on crises and challenges abroad, and held a rush meeting with his advisers early Wednesday morning about a threat of recourse to force by Iran against US forces in the Middle East. He would also be absorbed by the developing democrats' primary battle to choose a challenger in next year's elections.
An internal poll of Trump's 17-nation campaign revealed a possible opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ahead of Trump in a race for confrontation, according to people in the know numbers. Trump held up better in the duel with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, but Trump's low approval ratings dragged him against the Democrats. It was unclear whether the campaign survey tested anyone else on the ground.
This does not mean that he is disengaged from the ongoing brawl as a result of the investigation conducted by the special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III. The President expressed his anger on Thursday about a subpoena issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and privately complaining to councilors about Republicans in the Senate who had sought his family's help with the plan. political, but who were now trying to compel his son to testify.
The president's strategy is led by Pat Cipollone, the White House Council and senior officials of the Department of Justice. Like Attorney General William P. Barr, Cipollone has strong views on executive power.
Trump watched Fox News and other reports on congressional efforts to get the parts of Mr. Mueller's report that were written by Barr, his family said. His impulses sometimes contradicted the lawyers' advice, they said.
He asked some confidants why they should not reveal everything in the Mueller report of 448 pages, the vast majority of which has already been made public. But he also said that he wanted everyone to move on so he could focus on a presidential agenda, a sentiment he expressed on Twitter all last weekend.
As to whether Mr. Mueller should be allowed to testify before the Judiciary Committee of the House, the Speaker On Thursday, he reversed himself and said he would leave the decision to Barr, who said he did not oppose such an appearance. But privately, Trump continued to probe councilors over whether the Department of Justice should instead seek to prevent Mr. Mueller from appearing.
Jurists do not agree on the administration's chances of triumphing in court over its claims of privilege and subpoenas, but the White House sees little harm in leading the fight. Even if Mr. Trump were to lose, the more the President's investigations resemble a partisan struggle for food, the easier it can be to dismiss them as mere political considerations.
Yet the president is likely to push the Democrats to do what they could not do otherwise. After Mr. Mueller had concluded his investigation by stating that he had not drawn up a plot between Mr. Trump and Russia and could not accuse him or exonerate him of his claim. obstruction of justice, the House leaders slammed the door for impeachment. Although the Democrats can remove him to the House, there is no indication that they could bring together the 20 Republican senators needed for the two-thirds vote required to be found guilty in the Senate.
But the president's strong reaction to congressional demands for news and information provoked anger among Democrats and, according to some, increased the chances that they could still be blamed. Among the acts described as serious crimes in the dismissal statutes against President Richard M. Nixon prior to his resignation in 1974, he had refused to comply with Congressional subpoenas.
Three weeks ago, Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, leader of the Democratic majority, said that "dismissal is not worth it at this stage." After Mr. Trump claimed leadership privilege this week, he barred the publication of the unredacted version of Mr. Mueller's statement. In his report, however, Mr. Hoyer seemed more open to dismissal, saying that "if the facts lead us to this goal, so be it".
Moreover, one of the legal arguments raised by Mr. Trump's allies might encourage rather than discourage an impeachment effort. Advocates of the president's decision to resist subpoenas, for example, in his tax returns, claim that Congress has exceeded expectations because he has no legitimate legislative purpose to make this request.
But even these recognize that requests for Congressional documents and evidence would have a stronger legal justification if there was an active indictment investigation, in which case the House would act more clearly within its constitutional jurisdiction.
White House allies said the strategy was not aimed at delays, as some have speculated. Instead, Trump's lawyers at the White House have taken a stand to defend the executive against what they call legislative encroachment.
"It's about defending the fundamental Constitutional prerogatives of Article II, the executive," said David B. Rivkin, an administrative law lawyer composed of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. "The idea that the House has this kind of control power completely distorts the separation of powers and makes the president a ward of Congress."
Michael B. Mukasey, who was Attorney General under President George W. Bush, said this imperative was familiar to the presidents of both parties. "Look, the president has various prerogatives and the only thing he wants to make sure is that he has not surrendered them in a way that binds his successor and his his successors all along the line, "he said. "This is not unique to this administration."
Trump said he had collaborated in Mueller's investigation by allowing advisors such as his former White House lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, to testify and hand in a host of documents, although the president he himself refused to be interviewed in person. Mr. Trump would much rather have this fight with Congress now than next year when he will be in the middle of the presidential campaign, said Giuliani.
"He has the feeling that, with the exception of two of these people, most people are ready to move on," Giuliani said, adding that Democrats could lose 30 to 40 seats in the polls. House they were trying to dismiss Mr. Trump. "Part of the strategy is to eliminate them, and it's also a calculation that the public is not really interested in that anymore and they're going to look bad fighting it."
While Trump pushed the Democrats to destitution, Giuliani rejected the idea put forward in some quarters that the president believes it would be politically advantageous for the Democrats to dismiss him without condemning him, because it would rally Republicans in the presidential election.
"No one wants to be removed," said Giuliani. "I think Clinton would say, even if it worked in his favor, he would rather not be removed."
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