Gowdy: Trump should let Mueller interview him

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Wednesday urged President Trump to interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing the president is “uniquely” qualified to answer many of Mueller’s questions.

The chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee argued during an interview on CNN’s “New Day” that speaking with Mueller is not “risky” for Trump if the president has nothing to hide.

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“Only he knows what he knows. So I would tell you, if you did not rob a bank, there is no reason for you not to sit down and talk with the FBI about the bank robbery,” Gowdy said.

“If you have nothing to hide, sit down. Assuming a fair prosecutor, and I think Mueller is, sit down and tell him what you know,” Gowdy added. “I think he is uniquely well-positioned to answer some of the questions that not just the special counsel but the American people have.”

Gowdy’s remarks come after a Washington Post report Tuesday night revealed that Trump is not the “target” of Mueller’s investigation but rather the “subject,” a distinction that Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said is “meaningless” to him but means a great deal more to the FBI.

“The only word that matters to me in the criminal justice system is defendant,” Gowdy said. “So if you’re not the defendant, whether you’re the target or the subject, I know the FBI gets really caught up in those two words, [but] as a former federal prosecutor they’re meaningless to me.”

Mueller’s revelation to Trump that he is not currently a criminal target has reportedly made the president more willing to interview with the special counsel’s office, an idea Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd advised against before he resigned last month.

On Tuesday, a judge issued the first sentence related to the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling, sentencing Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan to 30 days in prison and ordering him to pay $20,000 in fines for lying to investigators.