Is Donald Trump under investigation? Yes? No? Maybe? No one can be quite sure, least of all his attorney Jay Sekulow.
On Monday's The Late Show, Stephen Colbert dissected the contradictions coming from the Trump camp since the Washington Post reported June 14 that the U.S. president faces an obstruction of justice investigation over alleged attempts to influence the FBI's probe into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the firing of director James Comey.
"Don't get too excited. That's just speculation from a hostile newspaper using anonymous sources, so naturally Donald Trump did the the smart thing and made no comment," said Colbert to guffaws from the audience.
"I'm just kidding," he added, pointing out that Trump, in tweets Friday, reacted to the investigation and said it was a "witch hunt" against him.
"Mr. President, you know the phrase 'you better lawyer up?' That's short for, you better get a lawyer and shut up," Colbert advised.
In his tweet, Trump said he was being investigated "for firing the FBI director by the man who told me to fire the FBI director," referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"Trump's tweet doesn't just confirm that he's under investigation," said Colbert, trying to make sense of the bizarre episode. "It also blames Rosenstein … Rosenstein is the man who, Trump said, told Trump to fire the FBI director in a letter Trump told him to wrote."
The late-night comedian joked: "It's all summed up by the famous plaque on the president's desk: 'The buck stops wherever I told Rod to tell me it should.'"
The investigation probe got even messier Sunday when Sekulow appeared on various news programs to deny Trump is being investigated. He then went on Fox News Channel and told Chris Wallace the president is being investigated by the Department of Justice—followed by a swift backtrack, followed by saying he doesn't know if he's being investigated.
"You had one job!" joked Colbert. "You had to go shoot your mouth off. You're the President Trump of trying to keep President Trump president."
"So to recap," Colbert said to close the segment. "Sekulow is saying Trump is not under investigation, is under investigation, and he has no idea if he's under investigation. A good lawyer covers his bases; that way, when the judge asks, 'How does your client plead, guilty or innocent?', he can answer, 'All of the above.'"
Yep, that sounds like a Trump defense.
Uncommon Knowledge
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