Donald Trump’s legal team is mulling over how the president could testify before special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation by considering limiting the scope of the questions and protecting him from walking into a perjury trap, a report on Sunday said.
“Everything is on the table,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person knowledgeable of his lawyers’ thinking.
They are looking at having the president submit written responses to Mueller’s questions or provide limited oral testimony, the report said.
Mueller is probing whether Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia during the 2016 election and whether the president tried to obstruct justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, who was heading the Russia probe at the time of his dismissal in May 2017.
A member of Trump’s legal team told the newspaper that having him testify could set a bad precedent for future commander-in-chiefs.
Mueller’s investigators have “all of the notes and memos of the thoughts and actions of this president on all subjects he requested in real time without reservation or qualification, including testimony from his most intimate staff and eight lawyers from the White House Counsel’s Office. Any question for the president is answered in these materials and testimony.”
“It would be a travesty to waste his ( Trump’s) time and to set a precedent which would cripple a future president ,” he added.
In the past couple of weeks, Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals for carrying out an elaborate plot to sow disinformation during the 2016 election using troll farms based in St. Petersburg with the intent of helping Trump while hindering Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
He has also indicted former Trump campaign official Paul Manafort and his close business associate Rick Gates on a variety of bank fraud and money laundering charges.
Gates, who remained with the Trump campaign after Manafort’s departure and through the transition, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy and lying to FBI agents and is cooperating with the investigation.
The charges stem from their work for former Ukraine politician with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mueller’s office declined to comment about the report.
White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah confirmed that Trump’s personal lawyers have been discussing Trump’s possible testimony with Mueller.
“Well, the special counsel has been in touch with the president’s personal attorneys and legal team. You know, we’re going to allow them to carry on that conversation,” Shah said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”