President Trump said on Friday he would consider sitting down with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team under “certain circumstances,” but wants to make sure he isn’t being “set up” for a “perjury trap.”
“I’d do it, but under certain circumstances,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s a big waste of time. There was no collusion.”
Trump cited former national security adviser Michael Flynn as to why he might be concerned about an interview with Mueller’s team.
“Flynn, where the FBI said he didn’t lie, but Mueller’s people said he did lie, so I don’t want to be set up with a perjury trap,” Trump said.
The prospect of Trump sitting down with federal prosecutors on Mueller’s team has been the subject of speculation in the media and the cause of some turmoil within the White House.
Trump said he was “looking forward” to sitting down with Mueller in January and hinted he was willing to do so under oath. Former Trump attorney John Dowd resigned in March as the president’s lead lawyer for the Mueller probe over disagreements with the president as to whether Trump should meet with Mueller’s team.
The president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has been unclear this week about whether Trump and Mueller will meet. Giuliani told the Associated Press Thursday evening that the president would neither sit with Mueller’s team for an interview nor would he answer a written set of questions from the special counsel, which Mueller and his team have said they are willing to do.
Giuliani then told NBC later Thursday evening that obstruction questions from Mueller have not yet been ruled “in or out.” On Friday, Giuliani told Politico: “We’re very opposed to that. We’re not closing it off 100 percent. We don’t want to mislead [prosecutors] and have them think it’s easy, but we have also not closed our mind to it.”
