Mueller indicates he will likely seek interview with Trump

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Post

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has raised the likelihood with President Trump’s legal team that his office will seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Mueller brought up the issue of interviewing Trump during a late December meeting with the president’s lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Mueller deputy James Quarles, who oversees the White House portion of the special counsel investigation, also attended.

The special counsel’s team could interview Trump very soon on some limited portion of questions — possibly within the next several weeks, according to a person close to the president who was granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.

“This is moving faster than anyone really realizes,” the person said. Trump is comfortable participating in an interview and believes it would put to rest questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 election, the person added.

However, the president’s attorneys are reluctant to allow him to sit down for open-ended, face-to-face questioning without clear parameters, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Since the December meeting, they have discussed whether the president could provide written answers to some portion of the questions from Mueller’s investigators, as then-President Ronald Reagan did during the Iran-contra investigation. They have also discussed the obligation of Mueller’s team to demonstrate they could not obtain the information they are seeking without interviewing the President.

 

Dowd and Sekulow declined to comment.

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Questions time for Trump?

[Draggingtree]

January 9, 2018

Judge Napolitano warns President Trump about Mueller

By Thomas Lifson

This report in the New York Times certainly looks like a leak, which seems to be the modus operandi of the current special counsel investigation:

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told President Trump's lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, setting off discussions among Mr. Trump's lawyers about the perils of such a move, two people familiar with the discussion said on Monday.

No formal request has been made and no date has been set.  White House officials viewed the discussion as a sign that Mr. Mueller's investigation of Mr. Trump could be nearing the end. ...

Mr. Trump's lawyers are expected to try to set ground rules for any interview or provide answers to written questions.  If Mr. Trump were to refuse outright to cooperate, Mr. Mueller could respond with a grand jury subpoena.    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/01/judge_napolitano_warns_president_trump_about_mueller_.html