Politics & Government

Trump Legal Team Seeks To Dodge Mueller Interview: NBC

Trump's legal team may seek to provide written answers or an affidavit in lieu of an interview, NBC News reported.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s legal team are preparing for a possible interview between Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a report in NBC News. The report said Trump’s lawyers are discussing a range of possibilities to avoid the interview, including Trump providing written responses to Mueller’s questions, people familiar with Trump’s strategy told the network.

Trump’s legal team may also seek to provide an affidavit signed by the president that says he is innocent of any wrongdoing instead of the interview with Mueller, according to the report. An NBC analyst, however, said it was unlikely prosecutors would let Trump avoid an interview. “The odds of prosecutors agreeing to written responses are somewhere between infinitesimally small and zero,” Chuck Rosenberg said.

In June of last year, Trump said at press conference that he would gladly testify under oath that he did not fire former FBI Director James Comey because of Comey’s handling of the Russia investigation. Trump made the statement a day after Comey testified before congress that the president forced him out to impede the Russia investigation. Trump disputed Comey’s testimony at the press conference, saying: “yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction.”

Find out what's happening in White Housefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Trump's outside attorney, John Dowd, said in a statement to NBC that the White House does not comment on communications from the office of the special counsel, but said they are fully cooperating with the office.

Head over to NBC for the full report.

Find out what's happening in White Housefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

More from White House