President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t see why he’d be asked for an interview from special counsel Robert Mueller because investigators have not found any evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia.
Trump signaled that he would be open to it but said he did not have any reason to think he’d be called in for questioning.
‘We’ll see what happens. Certainly I’ll see what happens. But when they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview,’ he said at a news conference.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t see why he’d be asked for an interview from special counsel Robert Mueller because investigators have not found any evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia
Trump made an example of Hillary Clinton, his former political opponent, who was not placed under oath when she was interviewed by the FBI in the summer of 2016 in her email case.
President Trump’s legal team is anticipating an interview request from Bob Mueller (pictured) before the conclusion of the Russia probe
‘They didn’t take notes. They didn’t record, it was done on the Fourth of July weekend. That’s perhaps ridiculous, a lot of people looked on that as being a very serious breach and it really was,’ he said.
The president punted to his lawyers to decide what he should do.
‘But again, I’ll speak to attorneys, I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion,’ the president stated.
Mueller and his team of investigators have reportedly said they want to interview President Trump in person as they move forward with the Russia probe – and Trump’s lawyers are saud reaching out for ways to protect the president by limiting the inquiry.
It has long been understood that investigators would seek answers from the man who presided over the campaign and White House that has been probed over issues ranging from any collusion to possible obstruction of justice and other matters.
Trump’s lawyers in and outside the White House met with Mueller’s team before Christmas where they raised the issue, having already charged Trump associates with lying to the FBI and extracted guilty pleas from others.
Prosecutors have indicated they will likely seek an interview with Trump, the Washington Post reported. Such a preference would be in keeping with standard prosecutorial strategy to talk to everyone who might have knowledge of a situation under investigation.
The push was being confirmed by people close to the president.
‘This is moving faster than anyone really realizes,’ a source close to the president told the paper. It could include an interview on a defined are of inquiry.
The person said the president is comfortable participating and that it would put to rest questions of collusion – something Trump has repeatedly denied in public, although not under oath as he would have to with the FBI.
In limited circumstances, this has even brought presidents to be deposed – as President Bill Clinton was required to do in special prosecutor Ken Starr’s Lewinsky probe, where his videotaped statements got used against him.
Investigators have already interviewed key figures throughout the White House and has indicted former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and his former deputy Rick Gates.
Trump’s White House lawyer Ty Cobb told DailyMail.com that ‘the White House does not comment on communications with the [office of special counsel] out of respect for the OSC and its process,’ and repeated its ‘full cooperation’ with the investigation on Monday.
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.
Trump is experienced in litigation from his career as a real estate mogul.
But a look at his past appearances reveals what his legal team must be mindful of: interviewed directly under oath, Trump has had to acknowledge past misstatements that he was unable to defend.
In his 2007 deposition in a libel lawsuit, he got asked about his note to a reporter where he claimed he owned a 50 per cent stake in a real estate project.
‘I own 30 percent,’ he testified under oath. ‘And I’ve always felt I owned 50 percent,’ he tried to explain, since he didn’t put up his own money on the deal. ‘The 30 percent equates to much more than 30 percent.’
Again and again, lawyers for the reporter, Tim O’Brien, grilled Trump, as the Washington Post recounted during the campaign.
Then he got asked about saying publicly he was paid ‘more than a million dollars’ for a speech.
Under questioning, he revealed he got paid ‘approximately $400,000.’ The balance was for the promotion of the event, which he considered ‘of great value.’
The president’s legal team is seek to mitigate the risk by various means, from trying to have him answer questions in writing to limiting the scope of the questioning.
Trump invited questions on Russian collusion again on Wednesday morning as he prepared to hold talks and a joint news conference with the prime minister of Norway.
He said in a morning tweet that the election meddling probe was a ‘witch hunt’ as he proclaimed once more that there was no collusion.
Norway shares a small portion of its border with Russia, making the Kremlin a hot topic at a joint news conference after the leaders’ meeting.
Trump said he believed it is ‘a lot better to work with’ countries like Russia than not to as he mused that Vladimir Putin must be discontent with his military build-up.
‘Putin can’t love that,’ he said.