LEGAL/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Can a president be forced to testify? While the Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on the subject, the answer appears to be yes. The question was tested during the Watergate scandal in 1974, when justices held unanimously that a president could be compelled to comply with a subpoena for tapes and documents. After the ruling, President Richard Nixon turned the materials over to prosecutors and then resigned…In 1998, independent prosecutor Ken Starr served a subpoena on Clinton that ordered him to testify about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton soon agreed to testify voluntarily, an arrangement Starr went along with because it headed off a potential challenge to the subpoena on constitutional grounds…The occasion also was the first in which a sitting president testified under oath in a criminal investigation in which he was a potential target. Whether President Donald Trump will be the second as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe remains to be seen. Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia in any way and whether Trump obstructed justice after the election.”
-Mark Sherman and Eric Tucker, “Can Trump be forced to testify? Legal precedents suggest yes,” The Associated Press, May 2, 2018 11:38 am