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This assistant noted that the White House had asked former officials to cooperate with Mueller's investigation, even going so far as to hand over to investigators the email addresses of these assistants. This makes it almost impossible not to cooperate, said the assistant.
The former manager mocked the idea that President Donald Trump would be angry at collaborators who spoke to investigators because Trump and his lawyers should have known that the people called on Sit down with Mueller's team should say everything without their knowledge during their talks with the president. the investigators of the special advocate.
Trump's legal team openly discussed his cooperation, even going so far as to send a letter documenting the scope of cooperation. From the beginning, the strategy has been to make it more difficult for Mueller to insist on an interview.
Now, this former leader nervously anticipates what will be contained in the redacted version of the Mueller report. This assistant claims to have fully cooperated with the investigators, highlighting the indictments in other cases in which Trump associates had been accused of lying to Mueller's team.
Will this person's name be in the conclusions? This former public servant has no idea. The lesson to remember for future probes of this type, said this source, is not to cooperate.
"Do not cooperate," said the former official, arguing that it would have been better to refuse to cooperate and be forced to speak to the grand jury, and may benefit from 39, some protection in terms of non-identification in the report.
Another former White House aide said the strategy of letting the witnesses speak to Mueller was beneficial to Trump, as she had avoided being questioned, but not so for the more than two dozens of officials and former White House officials who met with Mueller's team. .
"This is an indication of the White House atmosphere of" live now, manage later, "said the former staff member, adding that" later on, has arrived ".
Another source said: "This decision was made a long time ago, maybe they should have worried about that then about what worries them now."
Sources indicated that some, but not all, former collaborators had problems, especially among those whose activities rely on having access to information and gaining influence through their relationship with the White House. .
The concern is that the Mueller report will potentially put them in the meanders of Trump's orbit and will hurt their results. Some of the former officials have rushed past days, contacted the interviewees to ask if their name would be canceled in the report and expressed concern about what they could have said to Mueller there is more from one year.
And a former senior justice official, who is familiar with the investigation, said the report might contain embarrassing details about Trump. This official said it was "possible", but stressed that the president "is impossible to hinder".
The campaign and Trump's legal team appear to have put in place a public relations strategy to deal with the report's fallout: a Trump advisor said the first days of reaction to the release would be largely handled by lawyers outside the president. This will lead the conversation before political representatives intervene and react more aggressively, said the advisor.
"On the scale of things, it's already a boring old story," said the advisor, dismissing the possibility that the president is damaged. "We're bored."
Some former public servants expect the Mueller report to contain a chronological narrative of events that could be interpreted as an attempt by the president to lead the investigation, without doing anything inconsistent with the law.
Former officials are waiting for many examples of assistants saving Trump for himself, which the president will not appreciate, said one source.
"Much of what people have said will be embarrassing and may not be very detrimental to the president and the administration," said another source.
A matter of concern for both past and present officials is not just about what former White House lawyer Don McGahn might have said to Mueller, but also what his deputies, Ann Donaldson and Uttam Dhillon said.
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