Tin foil hats were bountiful on Saturday morning’s AM Joy as MSNBC host Joy Reid laid out a conspiracy theory for the ages, hyperventilating over a scenario in which President Trump refuses a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and is either arrested by U.S. Marshall or barricades himself in the White House.
Real Clear Politics writer Ian Schwartz flagged this down, beginning with Reid’s liberal fan fiction telling former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman to imagine “that Donald Trump decides he doesn't want to give an interview with Mueller, but Mueller says, ‘Oh, but you will.’”
Here’s the rest of her conspiracy theory:
And he's subpoenaed to interview Robert Mueller and Donald Trump simply says, ‘I don't recognize that subpoena.’ This is a President whose behavior is very outre for a President of the United States. He doesn't seem to follow convention. Who would force him to comply with the subpoena ordering him to do an interview with Robert Mueller?
Akerman responded that “[i]t would be a federal district court judge” that would order the President to comply and, if the President still doesn’t agree, “they would make a motion to hold Donald Trump in contempt” and a frequent “remedy” for “a person who refuses to testify before a grand jury winds up being incarcerated for the time period of the grand jury which is — can be up to 18 months.”
Reid was enamored and wanted more by flying off the rails in her fantasyland:
What if he refuses to open the White House door? What the sec — you know, can, what if he fires any Secret Service agent who would allow the federal marshals in? What if Donald Trump simply decides I don't have to follow the law? ‘I refuse to be held under the law. No marshal can get into this White House and any Secret Service agent who defies me is fired.’
Akerman told her that “at some point he’s going to have to come out of the White House....and the U.S. Marshals will be directed to take him into custody, bring him before the federal district court judge” where he can either testify in the Mueller probe, assert the Fifth Amendment, or be sent to prison.
The far-left, vile host still couldn’t let this go, claiming that he’s only “ask[ing] these questions because there is a finding in the Department of Justice that a sitting president can't be indicted” and “[s]o, I wonder, you know, if Donald Trump just decides he doesn't recognize the authority of any of these investigators, I don’t know what — I think that's when you get to what we generally used to call a constitutional crisis.”
Taking a shot at Fox News, Reid surmised that, if this deranged scenario were to play out, Trump supporters in the media would be “encouraging him to keep fighting” since “[t]here is a faction in American politics that would encourage him to continue to be defiant.”
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s AM Joy on April 7, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s AM Joy
April 7, 2018
10:38 a.m. Eastern
JOY REID: Well, Nick, that brings me to you because the question that, you know, and you know, Lawrence O’Donnell and I were talking a bit about this on his show the other day, but this is the question. Let's say that Donald Trump decides he doesn't want to give an interview with Mueller, but Mueller says 'Oh, but you will.' And he's subpoenaed to interview Robert Mueller and Donald Trump simply says, 'I don't recognize that subpoena.' This is a President whose behavior is very outre for a President of the United States. He doesn't seem to follow convention. Who would force him to comply with the subpoena ordering him to do an interview with Robert Mueller?
NICK AKERMAN: It would be a federal district court judge. The government —
REID: How would they enforce it?
AKERMAN: — at that point, they would make a motion to hold Donald Trump in contempt and the question would be what would the federal district court judge do in terms of a remedy? I mean, normally, a person who refuses to testify before a grand jury winds up being incarcerated for the time period of the grand jury which is — can be up to 18 months. So, one way to enforce it is to have Donald Trump taken by the federal marshals and put into federal prison until he testifies.
REID: What if he refuses to open the White House door? What the sec — you know, can, what if he fires any Secret Service agent who would allow the federal marshals in? What if Donald Trump simply decides I don't have to follow the law? 'I refuse to be held under the law. No marshal can get into this White House and any Secret Service agent who defies me is fired.'
AKERMAN: Well, at some point he’s going to have to come out of the White House. At some point, he is going to have to leave and the U.S. Marshals will be directed to take him into custody, bring him before the federal district court judge. He'll be basically told that either he goes in and he testifies or he takes the Fifth Amendment. If he takes the Fifth Amendment, there's not a problem. If he refuses to answer on the ground that a truthful answer would tend to incriminate him he has the right to do that. If he does that, there's no contempt. If he doesn't do that, he can be directed to go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. End of story.
REID: I — and I wonder, you know, I ask these questions because there is a finding in the Department of Justice that a sitting president can't be indicted. So, I wonder, you know, if Donald Trump just decides he doesn't recognize the authority of any of these investigators, I don’t know what — I think that's when you get to what we generally used to call a constitutional crisis.
AKERMAN: Yeah and it's also a question of the rule of law as to whether he'll follow it and how far the judiciary will go.
REID: Yeah.
AKERMAN: I would think the judiciary is meaningless unless they can enforce grand jury subpoenas.
REID: Right and, Nick, you know, and you would know better than the rest of us that he would then have what Nixon didn’t have if he decided to be defiant, he would have an entire media chorus encouraging him to keep fighting. I mean, it’s not as if he would be universally condemned. There is a faction in American politics that would encourage him to continue to be defiant.
AKERMAN; Right, but the judges don’t have to listen to a fraction of politics or group. They have to follow the law and what would happen is if he refused to testify, he would be ordered to appear before a federal district court judge. If he didn't do that, they would issue a bench warrant. The marshals would bring him before the federal district court judge. He would be ordered to testify or to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege.
