Another Roadblock From Donald Trump; Jared Kushner Slams Mueller Investigations
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, Donald Trump says special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation went far enough. And he doesn't want his current and former aides testifying before Congress. Sources tells CNN the president doesn't want former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before House Committee. McGahn told Mueller's investigators how he disobeyed Mr. Trump's order to fire Robert Mueller. Meanwhile, the president's senior adviser and son in law, Jared Kushner, is bashing the Mueller investigation. He says the probe was more harmful to the country than Russia's election interference and what he called a couple of Facebook ads. Let's take a closer look at all of this with CNN's political analyst, Michael Shear in Washington. He is the White House correspondent for The New York Times, great to have you with us.</s>MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITIOCAL ANALYST, THE NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly good to be here, Rosemary.</s>CHURCH: So the White House clearly stone walling on a range of issues missing the deadline to hand over Donald Trump's tax returns and now the treasury secretary stalling for time and giving until May 6th for final decision on this. What would be their legal arguments for not complying with the law and it begs the questions, what are they trying to hide?</s>SHEAR: Right. And so in the latter question, I think nobody really knows, though people suspect that his taxes may be filled with all sorts of if not illegal things then, you know, things that rich people do to be essentially, cut down on their taxes, which can be embarrassing when you are trying as Donald Trump does to present himself as the sort of champion of the regular guy. I mean, I think on the legal arguments, this is really a clash between two interpretations of a very simple law. The law says, you know, congressional -- this certain congressional committee chairman can have anybody tax returns, period. Democrats say that is very clear. Republican say yes, but if you're motive is political, than the law never intended for that to be the case. So, they are saying, it's not so much what the law says, it's what the interpretation of what the motive is. And they say that the motive was intended to be a, you know, a committee chairman who needs a particular tax returns to be able to sort of inform policy making, regarding taxes. If that is not the intent, if the intent is political embarrassment of an enemy, their arguments to the court is that's invalid and that shouldn't be upheld.</s>CHURCH: Right. We'll see what the courts eventually decide, which is exactly where this is going clearly. So, according to a senior White House official, they will likely fight the subpoena served on the former White House counsel Don McGahn to prevent him from testifying. How do they go about doing that, preventing McGahn from complying with the House subpoena? And what are they afraid of?</s>SHEAR: Yes. So on that one, there is a really long -- a much longer history of, you know, sort of legal trail, or a legal record on this question. You know, there have been over many years' attempts by the Congress to compel testimony from a president's aide on any number of subjects, and a White House, a president is given the opportunity to assert executive privilege. To essentially say, look, if you compel testimony from one of my aides that is going to cause me to not be able to rely on close aides in making important decisions that are important to the country. And the courts have, you know, have essentially split. I mean, many of them have come down and said, look, the president does have a right to assert executive privilege, and in other, cases courts have said, yes, but that's limited and there are exceptions to that. And this is going to be another, you know, clash that will probably go to the Supreme Court, because, you know, ultimately, neither side is going to give in. The Democrats are going to insist on McGahn and other top aides coming and testifying, the White House, it looks like it's going to say absolutely not, we don't want them to do that. We are exerting executive privilege. And ultimately, it will have to be the Supreme Court that decides it.</s>CHURCH: And of, course all of this is clearly buying time, isn't it? Because we've also got the White House telling the former security Director Carl Kline not to comply with the subpoena over security clearances. What's going on here? And what happens to Kline personally if he does not comply, because he would not be protected necessarily, would he?</s>SHEAR: I mean, that is a good question. As of now, the White House isn't actually asserting executive privilege over Kline, they are basically saying, we -- yes he can testify, but we want to put some conditions on it. We want to have another official in the testimony with him, Democrats have rejected that saying look, that's not ever been a condition that we've accepted in the past, Democrat or Republican. I think you have to look at all three of these things that we've talked about in the same context, which is, you know, the president is angry, the White House is angry that the Democrats are in the wake of the Mueller report continuing to lob investigation after investigation their way, and I think the president has essentially, it looks like the president essentially all, but ordered the White House to say we are just not cooperating on any of this. And you know, he will take the fight especially in an election year as we head towards an election year, he figures that, you know, the Democrats will look bad, they will like they're on a fishing expedition, and that the public will be behind him.</s>CHURCH: Right. And meantime while this is going, President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner says the Mueller investigation was more damaging to U.S. democracy than Russia's attack on the 2016 election, which he said amounted to just a couple of Facebook ads. Is this ignorance or spin?</s>SHEAR: Oh, it's a total spin. It's not ignorance at all. Jared Kushner is a smart man, he understands and has been steeped in everything that is been going on for the last and two and half years, if not before that during the campaign. He knows what the truth is. The truth is it wasn't just a couple of Facebook ads, this is entirely the spin that they have been trying to put on this for, you know, for as long as the investigation has been underway. That it's invalid, and it really is doing more damage than even the underlying circumstances that it purports to investigate. But look, I think that, you know, the real truth here is that it undermines what is really -- put aside the politics, the substantive issue of is this administration, is this country going to push back against Russia in its efforts to undermine the integrity of our elections? And I mean, I think, what Jared Kushner's comments suggests is that they are not taking it seriously. They're not taking it seriously in terms of what happened in the past, and they are not really taking it seriously in terms of the future efforts that Russia is making to undermine the integrity of our elections, and frankly elections around the world. And you know, there is some deep resentments, deep frustrations among the bureaucrats here in the United States, who want to push back, who want to develop, you know, responses to Russia and just can't, because this president and his White House are just not interested.</s>CHURCH: It is all extraordinary stuff that we are all analyzing as you, Michael Shear, many thanks for your perspective on all of this.</s>SHEAR: Good to be here.</s>CHURCH: Well, the pomp and the pageantry and quality time with the Queen, that's what President Trump will be treated to on his first state visit to Britain in June. Mr. Trump was on British shores last year, but that trips was built as a working visit. Still it caused quite a stir prompting mass protest and you might remember the appearance of a giant blimp in the president's image. Well, next here on CNN Newsroom, this young girl says writing in cursive is easy after she won a handwriting competition. And we will tell you why that feat is so remarkable. We are back in a moment.