The president’s legal team is mulling how to present the president to the special counsel for questioning when or if the times comes.
President Trump’s legal team is anticipating an interview request from Bob Mueller before the conclusion of the Russia probe. It may ask the Department of Justice to allow Trump to provide written responses to the special counsel’s questions, NBC reports.
Trump’s team is also seeking clarification on the special counsel’s desired format on the expected questioning, the network said, including topics and duration, and asking whether Mueller would conduct the interview himself.
The president’s legal team is mulling how to present the president to the special counsel for questioning when or if the times comes
Mueller’s team is said to be probing allegations that Trump intentionally obstructed justice in the Russia collusion case when he fired former FBI Director James Comey last year in May.
It is also interested in a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., set up and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, attended.
Manafort has already been indicted in the Russia probe – but not for any contacts he may have had with representatives of the Kremlin in the course of the presidential campaign. He and business partner who also worked with him on the Trump campaign, Rick Gates, have been charged with a dozen financial and lobbying crimes.
Since Mueller’s October indictment, NBC reports that Trump’s legal team has been brainstorming ways to sidestep an interview altogether.
The lawyers reportedly sat down with the special counsel’s office in late December.
Prior to that, Ty Cobb, one of Trump’s White House lawyers, had said he believed interviews for the investigation were wrapping up.
But the president himself had not been interviewed yet in the election meddling case that has morphed to include his axing of Comey.
NBC reports that Trump’s lawyers are seeking to determine whether the special counsel’s interest in the president would meet a legal bar for interviewing the nation’s chief executive.
Trump’s legal team declined requests from comment from NBC. So did Pete Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office. Carr also declined to comment to DailyMail.com.
The president said Saturday that he would be willing to speak to Mueller, but he’s not, as he understands it, under investigation.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Just so you understand — just so you understand, there’s been no collusion; there’s been no crime And in theory, everybody tells me I’m not under investigation. Maybe Hillary is, I don’t know, but I’m not.’