Special counsel Robert Mueller has sent list of questions President Trump’s way, according to a report.
Sources close to the White House told the New York Times the list was sent to Trump’s legal team amid negotiations for Mueller to secure an interview with the president. Mueller reportedly wants to ask Trump follow-up questions and the list served as a starting point.
The timing of when the questions were delivered is unclear, but one of the story’s authors, Maggie Haberman, tweeted that the list was sent “recently.” Mueller has already interviewed dozens of people connected to the Trump White House or campaign.
The story caps a tumultuous day, as both Trump and his personal layer, John Dowd, attacked Mueller’s Russia inquiry, which is looking at 2016 election interference as well a possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Reacting to the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Dowd suggested to the Daily Beast that it was time for Mueller to get fired and initially said he was speaking on Trump’s behalf. He later walked that back and said he was speaking only on his behalf and not the president’s.
But later in the day, Trump raged against McCabe, who warned this was all part of an effort to “slander” him and discredit the Mueller probe, ex-FBI Director James Comey, who initially oversaw the Russia investigation before he was fired, and eventually the special counsel himself, calling Mueller out by his name for the first time on Twitter.
“The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,” Trump tweeted. “It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!”
Trump was referring to allegations of government surveillance abuse, outlined in the recent House Intelligence Committee memo from the Republican majority, which said the controversial Trump dossier and its author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele, were instrumental in securing the authority to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The dossier, which contained salacious and unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, was funded partially by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Separately, reports on Saturday said McCabe, like Comey, kept personal memos of his interactions with Trump and he had given them to Mueller. McCabe also reportedly interviewed with Mueller’s team.
