President Donald Trump's lawyers are discussing options that would help him avoid a formal sit-down if FBI investigators interview him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian collusion during the 2016 presidential election, NBC News reports.
The legal team wants clarification on whether Mueller himself will interview Trump, the legal standard for interviewing a president, and whether he could provide written responses to questions rather than go through a formal sit-down interview, NBC reported Monday, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
One of the sources said the team is thinking of producing an affidavit, signed by him and denying any collusion, while affirming he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
However, Justice Department veterans say Mueller, who was director of the FBI for 12 years, will not pass up the chance of a direct interview.
"Prosecutors want to see and hear folks in person," said Chuck Rosenberg, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and chief of staff to former FBI Director James Comey and now an NBC News analyst. "They want to probe and follow up. Body language and tone are important, and they want answers directly from witnesses, not from their lawyers. The odds of prosecutors agreeing to written responses are somewhere between infinitesimally small and zero."
Trump's team first sat down with representatives from Mueller's office in late December. Two of the attorneys, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, declined comment about how Trump's interview could be conducted, while attorney Jay Sekulow, did not respond to a request for comment. Peter Carr, spokesperson for the special counsel’s office, also declined comment.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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