‘Disgraceful’ leak of questions angers president
Mueller still isn’t saying if Trump is considered a suspect
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has condemned as “disgraceful” a leak of dozens of questions Robert Mueller wants to ask the U.S. president in a face-to-face interview.
Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, submitted more than 40 proposed questions to Trump’s lawyers. The questions indicated he wants to focus on whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice by blocking the inquiry, and any links between his campaign and Russia.
Mueller’s team read the inquiries over the telephone to Trump’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That list was leaked to The New York Times by “a person outside Mr. Trump’s legal team,” the newspaper said.
Trump, writing on Twitter, said: “So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were ‘leaked’ to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see... you have a made up, phoney crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!” Trump later added: “It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened.”
The president’s assertion that there were “no questions on collusion” was correct in the sense that the word “collusion” was not used. However, the list did suggest Mueller is looking into whether Trump’s campaign coordinated in any way with the Kremlin, and whether he knew about it.
John Dean, Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, and star witness in the Watergate investigation, said whoever leaked the questions could be obstructing justice.
Many of the questions were predictable, based on events that are already publicly known, but one appeared to stem from as yet unreleased information. In it Mueller asked: “What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?” There has been no public suggestion so far of alleged outreach by Manafort.
Mueller’s questions gave no indication whether Trump is an official suspect in his year-long investigation, which has been shrouded in secrecy. The numerous inquiries related to potential obstruction of justice included whether Trump had sought to fire Mueller himself.
The president has expressed a desire to sit down with Mueller for an interview, believing it could hasten the conclusion of the investigation.
The questions were provided by Mueller’s team in March and convinced John Dowd, Trump’s lead lawyer at the time, that the president should not agree to an interview. Dowd resigned shortly afterwards amid suggestions his client was determined to ignore his advice.