President Trump in an early morning tweet said it is “disgraceful” that questions Robert Mueller reportedly wants to ask him as part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation were “leaked” to the media.
“So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were ‘leaked’ to the media,” Trump said.
“No questions on Collusion,” he added.
“Oh, I see…you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!”
“It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!” he said in a later tweet.
{mosads}The New York Times reported late Monday that it obtained a list of questions Mueller wants to ask Trump as part of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Moscow by Trump’s campaign.
The questions reportedly include inquiries related to Trump’s business dealings, his relationship with Russia and his communications with ex-staffers who have since been caught up in the probe.
According to the Times, a handful of the questions focus on communications between Trump or his campaign staffers and Russia.
They reportedly touch on the well-known meeting at Trump Tower that involved Trump’s son and a Russian lawyer, as well as whether the president himself discussed sanctions on Russia or meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign.
Mueller, according to the newspaper, also wants to question Trump about his knowledge of “any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia” about “potential assistance.”
Manafort is set to go on trial in the Mueller probe in the coming months, but has not yet been linked publicly to any campaign outreach to Russia.
Another question deals with any knowledge Trump might have had about Russian hacking during the presidential election, the Times reported
During the 2016 campaign, Trump praised WikiLeaks for disseminating hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and called on Russia to find her deleted emails from her time as secretary of State.
Trump’s decisions to fire former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey are also referenced in the questions obtained by the Times.
–Updated at 7:38 a.m.