President Trump said Friday that he “just finished” drafting written answers for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Trump and his associates.
“I’ve answered them very easily,” Trump told reporters at an Oval Office bill signing. “You always have to be careful answering questions for people who probably have bad intentions.”
Several news outlets reported this week that Trump would submit written answers to Mueller specifically about Russia, but not about other subject areas, such as potential obstruction of justice or financial crimes.
Trump did not describe the scope of the questions, but said he wrote the answers himself, rather than allow his legal team to do so.
“They were my answers, you don’t need lawyers to do that. … They were not very difficult questions,” he said. “I haven’t submitted them. I just finished it.”
Trump denied being “agitated” by Mueller’s probe, before blasting the investigation that has resulted in guilty pleas from former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former personal attorney Michael Cohen, and others.
“I’m not agitated. It’s a hoax, the whole thing is a hoax,” Trump said. “There should have never been any Mueller investigation because there was nothing done wrong … the witch hunt, as I call it, should never have taken place.”
Whether written answers will satisfy Mueller — whose probe initially focused on possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia — is unclear.
Nelson Cunningham, a former Clinton White House and Senate Judiciary Committee attorney, told the Washington Examiner this week that he believed reports about written answers were a strategic leak from Trump’s team.
“Clearly, the leak [about written responses] comes from the president’s team and is designed to exert pressure on Mueller,” he said. “It does not necessarily mean that Mueller’s office has agreed to accept written answers in lieu of actual testimony.”
Cunningham believes Trump may secretly be fighting a Mueller subpoena attempt, pointing to a mysterious Mueller-linked case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Former Trump attorney John Dowd told the Examiner this week, however, that he believes the preparation of written answers indicates there’s no secret subpoena fight and that Mueller’s sprawling investigation may be ending.
