A fun activity when following the ever-unraveling Trump administration is watching the president’s associates struggle to maintain their story lines despite their master’s tweets. Today, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit to insist that Trump is not under investigation for obstruction of justice. Oh?
Here he is on Face the Nation.
“We’ve received no notice of investigation. There’s been no notification from the special counsel’s office that the president is under investigation,” Sekulow said.
Maybe...he just doesn’t know he’s under investigation? suggests host John Dickerson.
“I can’t imagine a scenario where the president would not be aware of it,” Sekulow replied.
He delivered a similar line on Meet the Press:
“Let me be clear here,” he said. “The president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction.”
By the time he dragged himself to Chris Wallace at Fox News, Sekulow seemed a tad on edge.
Sekulow: He takes the action that [the Attorney General’s office] recommended and now he’s being investigated by the Department of Justice...He’s being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the terminations...
Wallace: ...You’ve stated some facts. First of all, you’ve now stated that he is being investigated...
Sekulow: No.
Wallace: You just said, sir...
Sekulow: No, he’s not being investigated.
Wallace: You just said that he’s being investigated.
Sekulow: No, Chris… let me crystal clear so you completely understand. We have not received nor are we aware of any investigation of the president of the United States. Period.
Wallace: Sir you just said two times that he’s being investigated.
Sekulow: No. The context of the tweet, I just gave you the legal theory, Chris, of how the constitution works…
Has anyone told Trump he’s not being investigated? Seems like he thinks he is.
Sekulow said that the tweet was merely a response to an anonymously-sourced Washington Post story, which reported that special counsel Robert Mueller had indeed expanded his investigation of Russian involvement in the U.S. election to include Trump.
In Wallace’s words: “Oh boy, this is weird.”