The Asian Age

Russia probe: Mueller may question Trump next week

◗ Special counsel seeking to question Trump about his removal of FBI director James Comey and NSA Michael Flynn

- LALIT K. JHA

Special Counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller, probing Russian interferen­ce in the 2016 US presidenti­al election, wants to question President Donald Trump on the issue, a media report said on Wednesday.

The Washington Post, citing two people familiar with Mr Mueller’s plans, said the special counsel was seeking to question Mr Trump about his ousting of FBI director James Comey and NSA Michael Flynn. They told the newspaper that Mr Trump’s attorneys have worked out terms for the President’s interview with Mr Mueller’s team which could be presented to the special counsel “as soon as next week”. “The President’s legal team hopes to provide Mr Trump’s testimony in a hybrid form — answering some questions in a facetoface interview and others in a written statement,” said the Post.

Washington, Jan. 24: Special Counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller probing the Russian interferen­ce in the 2016 US presidenti­al election wants to question President Donald Trump on the issue, a media report said on Wednesday.

The Washington Post, citing two people familiar with Mueller’s plans, said that the special counsel was seeking to question Trump about his ousting of FBI director James Comey and national security advisor Michael Flynn.

They told the newspaper that Trump’s attorneys have worked out terms for the president’s interview with Mueller’s team which could be presented to the special counsel “as soon as next week.”

“The president’s legal team hopes to provide Trump’s testimony in a hybrid form — answering some questions in a facetoface interview and others in a written statement,” said the Post.

A day earlier, the US Justice Department had confirmed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned by Mueller on his investigat­ion on potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the presidenti­al election. Mueller has already interviewe­d several close aides and family members of Trump over the issue. Trump, earlier, had hinted that it “seems unlikely” that he would allow Mueller to “interview” him.

Meanwhile, the White House on Wednesday said it supports “full transparen­cy” around a secret memo criticisin­g the FBI but it was for the House Intelligen­ce Committee to decide whether to release it or not. “We certainly support full transparen­cy, and we believe that’s with the House Intel Committee to make a choice,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at her daily news conference.

She reiterated that the White House would be cooperativ­e with Mueller. “As we’ve said every day this year, we’re going to be fully cooperativ­e with the special counsel and we’re going to continue to do that throughout the process,” Sanders said when asked whether the President was open to being interviewe­d by Mueller. “We're not going to comment on who may or may not, or could be interviewe­d,” she said.

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Robert Mueller

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