It is unclear who the source for this latest report is, but it is being floated that Robert Mueller still wants to interview Donald Trump.
December 14, 2018

Latest reports regarding the Special Counsel investigation are that Robert Mueller still wants to formally interview Donald Trump. It is unclear where these reports are coming from, since we know that Mueller's team Does. Not. Leak. This may be another Rudy Giuliani fan fiction dreamscape story, so treat it as such until we get further confirmation.

CNN is reporting it in the above clip. Here is some of what Pamela Brown had to say:

BROWN: We've learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team continues to be interested in interviewing President Trump. This is according to two sources familiar with the matter. Mueller's stance on interviewing the President for a year and a half now. It is not a settled issue, and nothing has changed from day one. One of the sources I spoke to said now the President and his lawyers are still very much opposed to any interview. We know, John, the President's legal team has resumed some discussion with Special Counsel in the weeks since the President responded to written questions. Mostly regarding collusion and the time period before the inauguration.

The two sides had agreed to hold off on discussing any interview while the President wrote responses to those questions which were returned, as you'll recall, just before Thanksgiving. That was seen as a first step to concluding more than a year of back and forth between the two sides and the President's lawyers had hoped would bring Mueller closer to finishing his probe. But we're learning that Mueller's interest in talking with the President continues, and it includes an interest in asking questions about the President's state of mind in regards to actions under scrutiny in the obstruction probe.

Now we should note there has been no indication Mueller is moving to subpoena the President. You'll recall there was a threat to do so by Mueller's team last year according to our reporting. The sources I spoke with when asked if Mueller had also had follow-up questions to the President's written responses, these sources declined to comment. We should note, I spoke to Rudy Giuliani, the President's attorney tonight and he reiterated the opposition on Friday -- tonight -- on interviewing the President and any potential interview. He stressed the mistrust of Mueller's aggressive investigation and the lawyer's view, saying "I'm pretty disgusted with him."

Jim Acosta was reporting from the White House. Here is what he had to add:

ACOSTA: If you talk to the President's legal team and people familiar with the discussions going on inside the President's legal team, they view a potential sit-down interview with Mueller or his investigators as a perjury trap. They've said that time and again. They don't want the President to sit down with Mueller because they feel he's essentially going to try to entrap the President and catch him in a lie and the President will then be in trouble for lying to federal investigators. They, obviously, want to avoid that. But at the same time, I think that this was something that was a -- a very strong possibility when the President fired off those written answers to Mueller's team weeks ago.

We knew when that happened and I know Pam is saying that, well, this is not because of what the President said in his written answers but we knew when that happened that there was the potential that Mueller's team would say "wait a minute. This answer is incomplete here. This answer is incomplete there. We need to go back and ask the President these questions." John, I've talked to sources inside the President's legal team for months now and months ago they were concerned about this as a possibility that if they were to send off these written questions, Mueller's team would come back and say "no, no, no, we would like some in-person responses from the President."

We should note that there is no legal "perjury trap" defense. In fact, the only people who use perjury trap as a defense are those who plan to lie. If you don't lie, you won't commit perjury. It is honestly that simple. But liars and criminals frequently try to get out of interviews by claiming that a trap will be laid.

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