Mueller pursuing interview with Trump
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to question President Donald Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans.
Mueller’s interest in the events that led Trump to push out Flynn and Comey indicates that his investigation is intensifying its focus on possible efforts by the president or others to obstruct or blunt the special counsel’s probe.
Trump’s attorneys have crafted some negotiating terms for the president’s interview with Mueller’s team, one that could be presented to the special counsel as soon as next week, according to the two people.
The president’s legal team hopes to provide Trump’s testimony in a hybrid form — answering some questions in a face-to-face interview and others in a written statement.
Those discussions come amid signs of stepped-up activity by the special counsel. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours by Mueller’s investigators last week, and Comey was interviewed last year, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
The interview with Sessions marked the first time that investigators for Mueller are known to have questioned a member of Trump’s cabinet.
The interview with Comey focused on a series of memos he wrote about his interactions with Trump that unnerved Comey. In one memo, Comey said that Trump had asked him to end the FBI’s investigation into Flynn.
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office, Peter Carr, declined to comment. Two attorneys for Trump, Jay Sekulow and John Dowd,