Special counsel Robert Mueller suggested to President Trump’s lawyers earlier this year that he would subpoena Trump to appear before a grand jury if the president refused to talk with his team, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Mueller made the comment in response to the Trump legal team’s argument during a March meeting that the president wasn’t obligated to speak with federal investigators in the probe into Russia’s election interference, according to the Post.
“This isn’t some game,” Trump’s then-lawyer John Dowd reportedly replied. “You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.”
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Those questions were based off the topics that investigators told Trump’s lawyers they wanted to discuss with the president.
The list of questions, which The New York Times first reported Monday night, includes inquiries about the decisions to fire national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, whether Trump communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign and the president’s reported attempts to fire Mueller.
“What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?” Mueller also reportedly planned to ask.
Trump railed against the questions in a tweet early Tuesday, claiming that there were “no questions on collusion,” despite several questions about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia being included on the reported list.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a recent addition to Trump’s legal team, reportedly met with Mueller last week to discuss details of a possible interview with the president.
“Hopefully we’re getting near the end. We all on both sides have some important decisions to make,” Giuliani told the Post on Tuesday. “I still have a totally open mind on what the right strategy is, which we’ll develop in the next few weeks.”
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment to the Post for its report Tuesday. Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow and Dowd both also declined to comment.