White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said Sunday that President Trump’s personal lawyers were still in talks with special counsel Robert Mueller about the possibility of Trump testifying as part of Mueller’s Russia probe.
“Well, the special counsel has been in touch with the president’s personal attorneys and legal team. You know, we’re going to allow them to carry on that conversation,” Shah told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“As a White House and as an administration, we’ve been fully cooperative with the special counsel because as the president stated many times, there’s no collusion, there’s no obstruction, there will be no findings of wrongdoing. And we look forward to the special counsel finishing their process and exonerating the president,” Shah continued.
The news follows Mueller ramping up his Russian investigation, issuing a superseding indictment on Friday against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for allegedly paying European politicians to take pro-Ukrainian positions.
Shah reiterated Trump’s characterization of the Democratic memo countering House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes’ memo, which accuses the FBI and the Justice Department under the Obama administration of surveillance abuses, as “a bust.”
He argued that the Democratic counter-memo released Saturday does not “undercut” Nunes’ initial claims that an FBI and DOJ warrant application to gather information on ex-Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page was based on the unverified Trump-Russia dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Shah added the Democratic memo also does not “rebut” the allegation that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which decided on the application, was not made aware that Steele’s dossier was partly funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump on Saturday tweeted the Democratic memo was “a total political and legal bust.”
“The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!” he wrote on Twitter.
