Robert Mueller has put the kibosh on a plan that would have let President Trump dodge an interview with his team of investigators — rejecting the idea of allowing the president to answer questions in writing.
Mueller, who is overseeing the ongoing probe into Russia’s interference in the US election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, wants to grill the commander-in-chief in person, Politico reported.
But negotiations are continuing between Team Trump and the special counsel’s office, with one source telling the website that the decision “doesn’t mean the last chapter’s been written on that.”
Rudy Giuliani, who recently joined Trump’s legal team but has reportedly angered the president with his many media eruptions, told the website that Mueller’s team and Trump’s lawyers were still far apart on the negotiations for an interview.
“We both have issues we want to resolve,” said the former New York mayor, who spilled the beans on Sean Hannity’s TV show last week that Trump had reimbursed his fixer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 he paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to clam up about their alleged tryst.
The president had previously denied knowing anything about the payment, stating that he also didn’t know where the money came from.
The special counsel wants to ask Trump about a number of topics, including the firings of Mike Flynn and James Comey, multiple contacts his advisers had with Russia and the infamous June 2016 sitdown at Trump Tower that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer and a shady Russian businessman and former spy.
That meeting was set up because the lawyer, though an intermediary, had offered the campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The president, meanwhile, continues to rage at the Mueller probe on Twitter.
“Is this Phony Witch Hunt going to go on even longer so it wrongfully impacts the Mid-Term Elections, which is what the Democrats always intended? Republicans better get tough and smart before it is too late!” Trump wrote on Monday.
“I think he’s getting sensitive to the fact they’ve gone on a little bit too long. He’s certainly getting a certain degree of questioning about that. I’m not so concerned about that as I am about let’s see some kind of road to a close,” Giuliani said Monday.
The president has repeatedly said he would “love” to sit down for an interview — but his lawyers are less enthused with the idea, fearing Trump could talk himself into trouble.
