A man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
----Paul Simon, "The Boxer"
Don Lemon's CNN panel discussed the reported relieved reaction by Trump to the news that he is a subject, and not a target of the Mueller investigation. He seems to think he's off the hook.
"All right. Mr. Philip Mudd, so what does this tell you about the Mueller investigation, this report?" Lemon said.
"I think we're too soft on this," Mudd said.
"If I -- put yourself in the -- in these shoes, Don. If someone walked in my room, in particular, FBI investigators. I've been questioned as a witness, not a subject. If someone walked in my office and said I was a subject of a multi-year criminal investigation led by a former FBI director Robert Mueller, I'd wet my pants.
"I mean this -- I'm not kidding. This is significant -- the president is the subject of a criminal investigation. if he goes into questioning in a room and he lies about what he's done or said over the course of time, he could transition from a subject to a target.
"Also, there's a couple other things that weren't mentioned here. Number one, what about Don Jr.? What about his son-in-law? Jared Kushner? It doesn't tell me anything about other White House officials and whether the investigation targets, the investigation reached the White House. So I think there are a lot of aspects here that are fascinating, including that issue of subject. One final point, Ryan Lizza nailed this one. This issue of reports. The special counsel doesn't have to write reports. So even if he chooses not to indict and he lays some grenades on the table about the president's actions and trying to impede the investigation, those are going to have a half-life of years. And people like members of Congress are going to want to read them and say, 'do we want to do something beyond what the special counsel is doing?'
