Lawyer: No obstruction probe of president
WASHINGTON — A member of President Donald Trump’s legal team repeatedly insisted Sunday that Trump is not under investigation for obstruction of justice, but he acknowledged that he could not know for certain.
“Let me be very clear here, as it has been since the beginning, the president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction,” attorney Jay Sekulow said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” part of a blitz of bookings on the Sundaymorning public-affairs shows.
That assessment, repeated on three other broadcasts, was at odds with a Washington Post report last week and seemingly with a tweet by Trump himself on Friday.
During a later appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Sekulow conceded that he could not say with certainty that Trump is not being investigated because he cannot read the mind of special counsel Robert S. Mueller.
The Post reported last week that Mueller, who was appointed to oversee the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice.
On Twitter on Friday, Trump wrote as part of a tweet about the probe that “I am being investigated.”
On Sunday, Sekulow sought to explain that Trump was using Twitter to address The Post’s report and was not actually confirming that he is being investigated.
Sekulow told NBC’s Chuck Todd, “The tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources that were purportedly leaking information to The Washington Post about a potential investigation of the president.”
Last week’s Post story cited five people briefed on the interview requests who said that the director of national intelligence, the head of the National Security Agency, and the NSA chief’s recently departed deputy had agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators. The five people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.