Trump wraps up Mueller questions
But president says he hasn’t submitted answers in probe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday he had “very easily” answered written questions from special counsel Robert Mueller, though he speculated that the questions had been “tricked up” to try to catch him in a lie.
He said he hadn’t submitted his answers to investigators yet.
“You have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions,” Trump told reporters in his latest swipe at the probe into 2016 election interference and possible ties between Moscow and the president’s campaign.
The president did not say when he would turn over the answers to Mueller, but his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, indicated it could happen next week. The special counsel has signaled a willingness to accept written answers on matters related to collusion with Russia. But Giuliani has said repeatedly the president would not answer Mueller’s questions on possible obstruction of justice.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly counseled the president against sitting down for an in-person interview.
Trump’s written response signals a new phase in the Mueller probe, the
year-and-a-half-long investigation that has produced guilty pleas and convictions from several top Trump aides even as the special counsel and the White House have engaged in lengthy negotiations about whether the president would testify.
Though he spent hours with his attorneys, Trump insisted: “My lawyers don’t write answers, I write answers.”
Trump’s remarks were fresh evidence of his return to the ominous rhythms of the Russia probe after spending heady weeks enjoying adulation-soaked campaign rallies before the midterm elections.
Despite Trump’s insistence Friday that he’s “very happy” with how things are going, his frustrations with the probe have been evident everywhere, from his overheated Twitter feed this week to his private grousing that Mueller may target his family. Adding to his grim outlook has been the barrage of criticism he’s getting over his choice for acting attorney general and latearriving election results that have largely been tipping toward House Democrats.
“The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,” Trump tweeted Thursday as part of a series of morning posts. The investigators don’t care “how many lives they can ruin,” he wrote.
A day later, he tried to put a rosier shine on the situation, telling reporters: “I’m sure it will be just fine.”
The president continued to maintain his innocence while launching new broadsides at the probe.
After a relative lull in the run-up to the midterms, the Russia probe has returned to the forefront of Washington conversation and cable news chyrons. There has been widespread media coverage of two Trump allies — Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi — who say they expect to be charged.
The president has expressed concerns behind closed doors that Mueller is closing in on his inner circle.
For months, Trump has told confidants he fears that Donald Trump Jr., perhaps inadvertently, broke the law by being untruthful with investigators in the aftermath of a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, according to one Republicans close to the White House.
Trump has also complained about efforts in the Senate by an occasional critic, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, to introduce legislation to protect the special counsel, according to the officials and Republicans.
Additionally, Trump has told confidants in recent days that he is frustrated by widespread criticism of his choice of Matthew Whitaker for acting attorney general, according to four officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity. Whitaker has been a vocal opponent of the special counsel probe.
One argument against Whitaker was that he has not been confirmed by Senate.
Trump, in turn, contended that the criticism was unfair since Mueller also was not confirmed for his post. The special counsel position does not require confirmation, and the former FBI director was confirmed for that previous job.
Meanwhile, House Republicans who have spent the last two years arguing that there was bias in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are preparing to subpoena two key witnesses in the final weeks of their majority: former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., has notified colleagues that he will subpoena Comey for a closed-door deposition Nov. 29 and Lynch for Dec. 5, according to a person familiar with the subpoenas.
The subpoenas are part of an investigation by two GOP-led committees into decisions made by the department during the 2016 election, when Democrat Hillary Clinton was cleared in a probe into her email use and Justice officials launched an investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia. Both Comey and Lynch were in power during that time.