The legal teams on both sides of the Russia investigation are preparing to continue with strategies under circumstances without a presidential interview, according to NBC News.
For months President Trump’s legal team discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office a potential interview with President Trump, but the likelihood of an interview occurring tarnished earlier this week when the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer.
The president condemned the FBI raid on his long-time attorney as out-of-bounds in the Russia investigation, which has focused on Russia’s influence in the 2016 election cycle, blasting the investigation once again as a “witch hunt.”
“When I heard about it, that is a whole new level of unfairness,” Trump said Monday.
The raid, which sought details on Cohen’s relationship with the Trump campaign and efforts to keep negative information on President Trump from surfacing, “significantly complicated” talks between Trump and Mueller’s legal teams of an interview with the president, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke to NBC.
Sources also told NBC that Mueller’s team might be able to close the obstruction probe quicker now without an interview with the president, finalizing its report as early as May or as late as July.
