President Donald Trump said Tuesday that "I'm not at all concerned" that Attorney General Jeff Sessions interviewed last week with Russia special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators.
"No, I didn't," Trump responded when he was asked whether he talked to Sessions about his testimony last week. "But I'm not at all concerned."
Sessions, the Trump campaign surrogate who recused himself from the Russia probe last March, was queried by Mueller investigators for several hours, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The Justice Department confirmed the interview — and the Times reported Tuesday afternoon that former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired last year, also sat for questions from Mueller's investigators last year.
Sessions was the highest-ranking Trump administration official and first Cabinet member known to have been questioned by Mueller's team.
President Trump's private lawyers are discussing the prospect of an interview with him, and White House officials state publicly that they expect Mueller's probe to end soon.
Trump also denied reports that FBI Director Christopher Wray had threatened to quit under pressure from Sessions to fire his deputy, Andrew McCabe, who headed the Hillary Clinton email probe.
Wray, Axios reported Monday, had threatened to resign — leading White House counsel Donald McGahn to tell Sessions that the issue was not worth losing the FBI chief.
"No, he didn't at all," the president said regarding Wray. "He did not, even a little bit. Nope.
"He's going to do a good job.
"We're looking at it," he added. "We're looking at a lot of things.
"Let's see how it all works out."
The president also beat back questions that his decision to impose steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels — already slammed by China and South Korea — would start a trade war.
The countries already ship as many as 3 million washing machines every year to the United States, with sales of around $1 billion.
They also hold a quarter of a U.S. market dominated by U.S.-based manufacturers Whirlpool and General Electric Co.
Beijing also is the world's largest producer of solar panels.
"It won't be a trade war," President Trump said. "There'll only be stock increases for companies in this country.
"That's what happened today.
"If you look at solar and you look at the washing machine companies, that's really what happened today.
"You're going to have people getting jobs again — and we're going to make our own products again.
"It's been a long time."