to let him be questioned? i think there are possibly three ways to evaluate this. one is they re testing to see how well the president might hold up in interview with mueller. they could be starting the process of mock interviews in the same way you might prepare for a presidential debate with mock debates and questions and simulate what s going on just to see how the president does to help them make a decision about whether to comply or not to comply with the request. two is the lawyers could have concluded this is a big mistake, that the president is not ready for this, doesn t have the discipline to go through this, and they re going to try to prove to him through these prep sessions that this is not what he wants to do, and that we have to think of a different legal strategy. or third, they could be saying, look, this is inevitable. the case law, nixon v. the united states, clinton v. jones, don t give us much room to
debate heats up, it s clear that michael avenatti is trying to get under president trump s skin every day with a new development on this. this time calling essentially implying in a deposition he would be trying to get the truth out of president trump and spongss to the underlying question here which is whether he knew about this $130,000 payment to stormy just before the election, brianna. i want to bring in our panel now, jackie kucinich, washington bureau chief at the daily beast and defense attorney specializing in federal and white collar crimes. caroline, in the motion to depose that was filed this morning, michael avenatti outlines the legal argument and cites clinton v. jones, the 1997 supreme court case established a sitting president has no immunity from civil litigation. what s the likelihood that the president gets deposed or do you think it is just a stunt? there s two questions here. i think it was a brilliant move
this president of the united states. the white house again forced to respond. look, the president has denied the allegations. we ve spoken about this sentencively and i don t have anything beyond that. anything beyond that, i would refer you to the outside counsel. he is seeking to depose donald trump for no greater than two hours. what trump knew about the $130,000 his lawyer paid in hush money to keep daniels quiet about their alleged affair. avenatti claims in a motion that a sitting president is not afforded special protection from a civil suit regarding conduct before he or she entered office. he cites the case clinton v. jones, the 1997 supreme court ruling that compelled president clinton to give testimony in a sexual harassment case filed by paula jones. that case has already been cited by a judge in new york as justification to allow a
they re telling the truth. the white house has denied allegations of this. trump himself hasn t. i think that they want to tee that up. i think they re trying to bite through all the tweets and everything the president to make a flat denial. in the interim they re going to file this motion and say essentially that cohen s statements are enough for a df mags. does avenatti have a shot here? the shot he would have and certainly clinton v. jones help in terms explain that. in that case the state held a president is not immune to discovery because he s president. if there s a valid reason to depose the president he can be deposed while he s in office. that s what clinton v. john said. you still have to get that point
others is a good thing, not a bad thing. he went on, they can help solve problems with north korea, syria, ukraine, iran and even the coming arms race. bush tried to get along but didn t have the smarts. obama and clinton tried but didn t have the emergency or chemistry. remember, we said peace through strength. that all comes amid multiple reports that president trump s top team included in his briefing materials em blazened with the words do not congratulate written in all caps which is president ignored. if this story is accurate, that means someone leaked the president s briefing papers. leaking such information is a fireable offense and likely illegal. a source familiar with the matter tells nbc news john kelly is frustrated and deeply disappointing. so it seems to me that the white house, john kelly and others are