President Donald Trump's inner circle worry special counsel Robert Mueller might have laid a perjury trap with Michael Cohen's guilty plea, Vanity Fair reported.
"Trump was totally caught off guard by the Cohen plea," one unnamed source told VF's Gabriel Sherman.
According to Sherman, Trump allies are concerned Mueller waited until after Trump submitted written answers under oath to the special counsel's office before revealing the evidence prosecutors had gathered to secure Cohen's plea.
"The fear in Trumpworld is that Mueller may have laid a perjury trap for the president," Sherman wrote, quoting an unnamed former staffer.
Trump called Cohen "weak" Thursday and accused him of "making up a story." But hours later, Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The New York Times that Trump's sworn answers to Mueller matched Cohen's version of events.
"Why would the president come out and say Cohen lied?" the former staffer told Sherman.
Giuliani also complained to an unnamed friend Mueller's office stopped communicating with him after he delivered Trump's answers, Sherman reported.
He further complained Mueller is delaying submitting his report to the Justice Department until the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives in January, Sherman reported.
Cohen's guilty plea also reignited fears the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., will be next to be indicted.
"It's an untethered situation," one unnamed source close to the president told Sherman.
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