Negotiations continue on Trump talk with Mueller
President says, ‘I would love’ to testify under oath
WASHINGTON – Though President Trump said he was willing to testify under oath in the federal investigation into Russia’s alleged election interference, officials clarified Thursday that negotiations on the details of an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team were ongoing.
The president will “be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” White House attorney Ty Cobb said.
Trump’s legal team and Mueller’s investigators were working out whether he would testify under oath, according to officials familiar with the inquiry who were not authorized to comment publicly. Other issues include a time limit for the interview, the location of the testimony, whether some areas of questioning would be off-limits and whether the session would be videotaped.
For weeks, Trump’s team has negotiated on the terms and scope of a possible interview with the president related to the wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s possible collusion with Trump associates and whether the president obstructed justice in connection with the inquiry.
Wednesday night, Trump stressed that he was eager to testify. “I would do it under oath,” he said as he prepared to leave on his trip to an economic conference in Davos, Switzerland. “I’m looking forward to it, actually.” Though Trump said his testimony is “subject to my lawyers and all of that,” he made one thing clear: “I would love to do it.”
The officials held out hope of written testimony from the president instead of a live interview, noting that President Reagan followed that approach during an investigation into the Iran-contra imbroglio of the 1980s.
It’s unclear whether Mueller’s office, which has not commented on its talks with Trump’s lawyers, would accept such an arrangement.
The officials are looking at the precedent set by President Clinton’s testimony during independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation in 1998 into his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton agreed to testify under oath via videostream from the White House. The video was transmitted to the grand jury. The testimony was limited to four hours after negotiations among lawyers.
Trump pointed out that Hillary Clinton did not testify under oath when FBI agents interviewed her in 2016 about her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State.
Trump addressed another aspect of the Mueller investigation: whether he obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey, who was running the Russia investigation. Trump said his critics have been unable to prove any sort of collusion — so they hype his efforts to “fight back” against what he considers an unfair investigation.
“There’s no collusion,” Trump said. “Now they’re saying, ‘ Oh, well, did he fight back? Did he fight back?’ You fight back ... (they say) ‘Oh, it’s obstruction.’ ”
Trump did not explain what he meant by “fight back.”
Mueller would probably ask about the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing. The president acknowledged in a television interview that the Russia investigation was on his mind when he made the decision.