President Donald Trump should not be relieved at the news that he is a “subject” not a “target” of the Mueller probe and the president is still in hot water, CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Wednesday on “New Day.”
“There are three categories of witnesses in federal investigations,” Toobin said “There’s a witness who is just someone who has information of value. There’s a target, who is almost certainly going to be indicted, then there’s a subject, someone who is being scrutinized who may be indicted, who may not be indicted. And that’s the category that Trump falls in.”
“But that’s a very serious thing. I mean if you are a subject of a criminal investigation, that means you are — they are looking at you as someone who may be a criminal,” Toobin continued.
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Toobin said Trump’s status in the investigation can still change and expects trouble if he decides to assert his fifth amendment right.
“If you are a lawyer and are told, as you have a right to be told, that your client is a subject, you almost always tell that person to take the fifth,” Toobin said. “You don’t take chances. Now, when your client is the president of the United States … that calculation is a little different.”
“Can the president of the United States take the fifth? Certainly as a legal matter he can. But politically it’s a dicey question. I actually think the president can take the fifth and may well wind up doing it,” Toobin concluded.
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