Asha Rangappa

Asha Rangappa is a senior lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and a former special agent in the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI.

Law & Order
How Trump Could End Up Diminishing His Own Power

When Mueller calls, Trump is going to have a choice: Accept the interview or risk curbing his own authority—and that of other presidents in the future.

By ASHA RANGAPPA

February 20, 2018

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/20/how-trump-could-end-up-diminishing-his-own-power-217035
In the coming weeks, President Donald Trump is going to find himself making a decision he’s bound to hate: Does he want to comply with Robert Mueller, or risk diminishing his own power?

Here’s why this choice is inevitable. In the wake of his eight-count indictment against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for election interference, special counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in interviewing Trump will take on a renewed importance. So far, all signs have pointed to Trump’s refusing the interview request, which would almost certainly force Mueller to issue a grand jury subpoena to compel the president to talk. If this comes to pass, and the president refuses to comply with such a subpoena, the country will be in uncharted constitutional territory, and the courts will need to intervene. But history shows that when courts intervene because a president is trying to shield his own conduct, the deck is stacked against him. If Trump isn’t careful, he will end up shrinking his own authority—and diminishing the presidency for years to come.