Trump attacks leak of Russia questions
US president condemns ‘disgraceful’ disclosure of list put to his lawyers in collusion investigation
DONALD TRUMP yesterday condemned as “disgraceful” a leak of dozens of questions Robert Mueller wants to ask the US president in a faceto-face interview.
Mr Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, submitted more than 40 proposed questions to Mr Trump’s lawyers. The questions indicated he wants to focus on whether Mr Trump attempted to obstruct justice by blocking the inquiry, and any links between his campaign and Russia.
Mr Mueller’s team read the inquiries over the telephone to Mr 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.
Mr 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, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information.
Nice!” Mr 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 Mr Mueller is looking into whether Mr 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. He said: “It could be obstruction just to have released these questions... the tipping off of witnesses in advance to what the question was going
to be.” 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 Mr 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 Mr Manafort, who has been separately charged by Mr Mueller with financial crimes.
Mr Mueller’s questions gave no indication whether Mr 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 Mr Trump had sought to fire Mr Mueller himself.
They also included what Mr Trump’s intentions were in firing James Comey as FBI director, and whether he initially appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general to “protect” himself from any Russia investigation. In relation to Russia links, Mr Mueller wants to ask Mr Trump when he became aware of a Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 between senior members of his campaign and a Russian lawyer who offered “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
The special counsel also expressed interest in Mr Trump’s trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, and any discussions he had during the campaign about meeting Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump’s businesses also feature in the questions, including any discussions he had with Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer, about a potential property deal in Moscow.
The president has expressed a desire to sit down with Mr Mueller for an interview, believing it could hasten the conclusion of an investigation he has repeatedly called a “witch hunt”.
The questions were provided by Mr Mueller’s team in March and convinced John Dowd, Mr Trump’s lead lawyer at the time, that the president should not agree to an interview. Mr Dowd resigned shortly afterwards amid suggestions his client was determined to ignore his advice.
‘It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened’