Washington (CNN) Donald Trump's lawyers are counseling him not to answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller, for fear the President might be caught in a lie or an exaggeration that creates legal peril for him, according to The New York Times.

Which is, if you stop and think about it for a minute, a pretty remarkable admission. The President of the United States, who has said publicly he is happy to talk to Mueller under oath, is considered such an unreliable witness by his legal team that they want to shroud him from any possible questioning about Russia's attempted meddling in the 2016 campaign and his decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey -- among other things.

In short: He's too big a risk to himself. Relatedly: He is the President of the United States.

Here's the thing though: Trump's lawyers are absolutely right! If past is prologue, allowing Mueller to question Trump would be a epic disaster with a President -- and a man -- who has spent his life making things up forced to confront those falsehoods.

The Times' report comes after CNN's reporting last week that Trump's attorneys are arguing that Mueller's team hasn't met the "high threshold" it needs to have Trump sit down in a face-to-face interview.

Read More