Special Counsel Robert Mueller will seek to interview President Donald Trump, the Washington Post reports. Trump’s lawyers and the special counsel’s office are said to be negotiating the terms of an interview, with Trump’s lawyers indicating they would prefer to answer some questions in person and others in writing. The Post’s sources indicate that Mueller is zeroing in on the circumstances surrounding the firings last year of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey. Comey was fired in May after demurring when the president allegedly asked him to go easy on Flynn. Flynn has subsequently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over his contacts with Russians during the campaign.
News of Mueller’s intention to question Trump comes on the heels of reports that last week the special counsel and his team interviewed both Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions’s own job security, said to be dodgy given Trump’s displeasure with the AG’s handling of the Russia probe, is reportedly drawing scrutiny as well. Mueller is looking at a “pattern” of the president’s behavior with respect to the Russia investigation and whether he has made efforts to squelch the inquiry, the Post reports.
Speaking of a pattern of behavior, one of the interesting questions that arises from this latest revelation pertains to Mueller’s investigation itself. Once hailed as the tightest of tight ships, the special counsel’s office suddenly seems to be leaking like a rusty, old trawler, sharing all sorts of tidbits on which officials are being questioned and why. It’s possible that, having been so tight-lipped for so long, Mueller’s staff is starting to grow indiscreet or complacent. It’s also possible that Mueller is turning a blind eye to leaks in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on witnesses. It’s even possible that some of the information making its way into pixels and print is intended as a feint, to focus attention on one aspect of the probe while shielding another, more sensitive part of the investigation.
Whatever the case, views on how dangerous for the White House this latest move is depend on who you ask. “Behind the scenes, Trump has told his team of lawyers that he is not worried about being interviewed, because he has done nothing wrong, according to people familiar with his views,” the Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey report. “However, some of Trump’s close advisers and friends fear a face-to-face interview with Mueller could put the president in legal jeopardy. A central worry, they say, is Trump’s lack of precision in his speech and his penchant for hyperbole.”
Erstwhile Trump friend and advisor Roger Stone was even more blunt: “Why would you walk into a perjury trap?” he said.
The fact that Stone and others openly worry that Mueller’s goal is to catch the president a provable lie tells you just how gravely the investigation is being viewed within Trump’s inner circle.