President Trump’s legal team is expected to make a final decision soon about a sit-down interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, following negotiations last week over the scope of questions that would be asked by federal investigators.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told CNN on Monday that the president and his team are working on a response, though he declined to say in which direction Trump was leaning. Giuliani has previously said he’s advised the president against speaking with Mueller, despite Trump’s belief that he has nothing to hide.
[Rudy Giuliani: Deal to have Trump sit down with Robert Mueller could happen next week]
Both parties have worked behind the scenes to set conditions for a presidential interview, including the number of questions Mueller could ask Trump and the range of topics he could cover. The president’s legal team argued in a letter to the special counsel earlier this year that certain hypothetical questions, most of which involved the president’s business history and finances, were unrelated to the purpose of the federal investigation into Russian election meddling.
Several outlets reported last week that Mueller had agreed to limit the number of questions related to possible attempts to obstruct justice, and to allow the president to submit some responses in written form.
“We are moving as expeditiously as possible to make the determination to make our recommendation to the president,” Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow told ABC over the weekend, adding that the president has “been clear that he wants to interview” but his legal team “is concerned” about the risk of sitting down with Mueller.
