It has not been settled whether President Donald Trump can be subpoenaed if he does not sit down to answer FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's questions, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., insisted Monday, hitting at another lawmaker's opinion the president could face subpoenas like former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
"I disagree with Congressman [Jim] Himes," DeSantis told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime." "It's not settled that the president can be subpoenaed for any reason at all. This is different than what Bill Clinton sat for. It's different than the Nixon tapes. What Mueller is purporting to do is potentially subpoena the president to conduct oversight over the president's use of his Article II powers."
Mueller, he added, is an "inferior officer in the executive branch, so it raises huge separation of powers questions," DeSantis added. "I'm not sure that the court would force the president to answer questions under those circumstances."
Earlier on Monday, Rep. Himes, D-Conn., told CNN that Rudy Giuliani is "completely wrong" with his comments the president would not have to comply with the terms of a subpoena.
"[Richard] Nixon was asked to produce tapes and Bill Clinton was compelled to participate in a civil case," Himes said. "The idea that the president could be subpoenaed is not open to question."
DeSantis, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer, told Fox News he would not advise Trump to go in to testify, "given they don't have an underlying case on any of this."
"If you you go in and testify and they trip you up on something, what then do they try to use that for?" DeSantis said.
He also said, while people often think that when someone "pleads the Fifth," they are either guilty or hiding something, in "normal society, people don't get brought in and subpoenaed if there is no underlying crime."
"This would be an extraordinary use of government questioning, so I think taking the Fifth under those circumstances [is] different from the normal situations," DeSantis said.
Meanwhile, he said he believes the Trump administration started out under investigation believing there was nothing to it, and turned over large numbers of documents.
"They didn't exert executive privilege, which they could have, and I think they wanted it to end soon," DeSantis said. "But I think the way it has gone, it is clear this is not just a good faith effort to find something and if it's not there, move on. They will keep digging until they find something beyond collusion, whatever they can find."
DeSantis also noted there has been a division between Republicans over the investigation and about bringing things to a halt.
"I wanted to conduct oversight over Mueller from the beginning," DeSantis said. "Just think of the recent news in the courts. One federal judge slapping them down for bringing the [Paul] Manafort charges, that are totally unrelated. Over the weekend, you had the judge say sorry, Mueller, we are not giving you an extension. They wanted an extension to prosecute the Russian case and they are not ready to bring the case. There are a huge number of questions over the last week raised about the operation."
DeSantis also said he does believe it was a good idea for Trump to add Giuliani to his legal team.
"He brings skill, experience and he brings a relationship with Robert Mueller," DeSantis said. "He was Mueller's superior back in the '80s. Rudy is the man for the job. I think he is going to probably help engineer a positive outcome in this case."