‘Essentially calling his own staff liars’: Ex-FBI counterintelligence chief explains Trump's credibility dilemma

The former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Frank Figliuzzi, explained the credibility paradox President Donald Trump created by dismissing as "fake news" a bombshell New York Times report on the ordered firing of special counsel Robert Mueller.

"Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace said, "Donald Trump's reaction to this story, by calling Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman's account fake news, he may have impeached the credibility or perhaps even the testimony of Don McGahn. Elaborate."

"He may have painted himself into a corner here that has legal significance, Figliuzzi noted.

"So, as we've just heard, this news that he wanted to fire Mueller was not a surprise to Mueller," Figliuzzi explained. "So, someone or multiple people in the White House shared this firing with Mueller."

"Here comes Trump publicly saying, 'that's fake news,' so, he's essentially calling his own staff liars," Figliuzzi said.

"So, if this obstruction matter heads to a grand jury, a courtroom, or to Congress for impeachment, we may face a situation where the president is literally confronted with the written statements of his own staff, possibly his own White House counsel, contradicting the president's public statements that this is fake news."

"He's not only impeaching the credibility of his own staff, but his own staff now is faced with impeaching the president's credibility. It's quite an interesting dilemma," he concluded.

"It sounds like a standoff," Wallace said.

"As you all sort of hinted at earlier, the fact that Trump sometimes says things that don't lineup with reality is likely giving a lot of concern to the president's lawyers about whether or not they want him to sit down with Mueller," noted Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff.

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