'Our jury is the American people': Trump and Giuliani are on the warpath against Mueller, and it just might work
- In the absence of a publicly coherent legal strategy, President Donald Trump's and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani's escalating public attacks on the special counsel Robert Mueller and the Russia probe may prove fruitful.
- "Our jury is the American people," Giuliani told Business Insider. "If they decide that the president is being badly treated, there's no way any Congress will impeach him."
- John Dowd, Trump's former lead defense attorney, told Business Insider believes otherwise.
- "I wouldn't have gotten anywhere [with Mueller] if I had gone public like Rudy has," Dowd said. "Meanwhile, the president hasn't changed at all. He always likes to talk. Whether it's wise or not is another question."
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As the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election heats up, President Donald Trump is litigating the issue on his favored battlefields: Twitter and the press.
In the absence of a publicly coherent legal strategy, the president's public war against his perceived enemies in the FBI and Justice Department may end up working out in his favor.
Firing off a barrage of tweets this week to his 52 million Twitter followers, the president unloaded on Mueller and the "13 Angry Democrats" he accuses, without evidence, of embarking on a political "witch hunt" against him and his associates.
So far, the Russia probe has yielded 19 indictments and five guilty pleas from individuals including the former national security adviser and the former deputy chairman of the Trump campaign. Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman, was also charged but has pleaded not guilty.
Last week, Trump's target was the "Criminal Deep State," which he said planted a "spy" in his campaign to cripple his chances at winning the 2016 election. He dubbed the so-called scandal "Spygate."
The president, who fashions himself as a champion of law and order, has long exhibited a distrust toward the US intelligence community, and his attacks on the FBI and Justice Department are nothing new. He soured on the national-security apparatus as early as 2016, when it first emerged that US intelligence agencies were investigating whether Moscow meddled in the election to tilt the race in Trump's favor.
Now, as Mueller's investigation kicks into high gear, so have Trump's counterattacks.
"We're focusing on the fact that we're not trying this case to a jury," said Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and DOJ veteran who is now leading Trump's defense team. "Our jury is the American people. If they decide that the president is being badly treated, there's no way any Congress will impeach him."
A page out of the Clinton playbook
In many ways, Trump's offensive maneuvers bear similarities to former President Bill Clinton and his allies' in the 1990s.
The Democratic strategist and longtime Clinton loyalist James Carville promised to launch an "all-out" public relations campaign against Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel in charge of the Whitewater investigation, in 1996.
Carville doubled down as the investigation grew in scope, telling The New York Times in 1998, "There's going to be a war."
"Ken Starr has become corrupt, in a sense that Lord Acton meant when he said that absolute power corrupts absolutely," Paul Begala, then a Clinton White House counselor, said that same year. Starr is "firing off subpoenas as if he's got an Uzi."
"The Clinton M.O. was to smear the special counsel," said one person with knowledge of the Trump team's thought process. "Those guys lobbed attacks every day from the White House at Clinton's accusers and Ken Starr. This president's just taking a page out of his predecessor's book."
Giuliani is of significant help to Trump as he goes on the offensive against the special counsel. A veteran of the Justice Department and a former prosecutor from the Southern District of New York, Giuliani's view of the bureau and its agents has seen a sharp evolution in recent months as he aligns himself with Trump's camp.
Asked during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" last week whether he believes Mueller's investigation is legitimate, Giuliani responded, "Not anymore."
"I did when I came in, but now I see 'Spygate,'" he told host Dana Bash.
If you turn on Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC, you're likely to find Giuliani appearing on the morning, primetime, and Sunday shows pushing the president's case.
In often long-winded appearances, Giuliani delivers the line again and again: Mueller's investigation is targeting Trump in an unfair political conspiracy.
"We're being more aggressive because we're targeting public opinion," Giuliani said. "[Former President Richard] Nixon resigned because public opinion fell apart. Clinton got through it because public opinion was on his side. It's the most important thing."
In any other case, the subject of a criminal investigation making disparaging public comments about the prosecution would have no bearing on the potential outcome. But as is often true when it comes to this president, Trump's situation is unique.
"Here, because there is a political element to some of the decisions Mueller and Congress may have to make, part of the calculus in approaching Mueller is political," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the DOJ. "Trump's and Giuliani's PR bit here is to kind of numb 30 or 40% of the population and convince them they can't believe what they're seeing and hearing."
'The more he says it, the more people believe it'
Giuliani is primarily responsible for managing Trump's communications with Mueller, and his accessibility has made him a media staple since he took over spearheading Trump's legal team following the departure of former defense attorney John Dowd.
Dowd resigned in March, reportedly amid frustration that Trump was not following his advice to avoid an interview with Mueller.
Giuliani's strategy is starkly different from Dowd's, who largely avoided the media spotlight when he led the president's team.
Asked Wednesday about Giuliani's tactics, Dowd said that while he supported Giuliani and viewed him favorably, "Rudy has done it his way, and that's not my way."
"I didn't do media when I was on the team because I couldn't, given the relationship I had with Bob," he said, referring to Mueller. "I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I had gone public like Rudy has - I don't think I could have gotten the 16 topics and 49 questions that way. But when Rudy arrived, we already had that. We had a full briefcase and we knew exactly what was on Bob's mind."
Responding to Dowd's remarks, Giuliani said he respected his predecessor but that "dealing with the media was not John's forte."
How effective Trump's strategy of publicly railing against Mueller in what has largely been a one-sided fight remains to be seen. But there are signs that it's proving at least somewhat fruitful for an embattled White House.
Last month, as Trump and his allies ramped up their attacks on Mueller, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found his favorability rating among Americans dropped 11 points through April.
"The things Trump says, it's like a mantra, and the more he says it, the more people believe it," Cramer said. "And now we're in this alternative universe where on one side, you've got a three-time bankrupt game show host and real-estate developer, and on the other side you've got Bob Mueller. Really, this is a close call? But apparently it is."