Schiff says Trump’s written responses to Mueller are not adequate

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called on President Trump to sit down for an in-person interview with special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, saying that the president’s written statements to the special counsel’s office were insufficient.

{mosads}Schiff, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said Mueller needed the opportunity to ask follow-up questions based on the president’s responses.

“There really needs to be a live interview with the president because you need to be able to ask follow-up questions in real time,” Schiff told CNN on Wednesday.

Schiff also said the committee, under new Democratic leadership next year, would pursue phone records related to the setup of June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign associates and a Russian lawyer who had promised dirt on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“In terms of whether [the president] was aware of the meeting at Trump Tower, there is important, relevant information that we were not allowed to get [previously],” Schiff told CNN.

“One of the key documents, for example, that we are going to pursue are the phone records that would show who was on that call [Donald Trump Jr.] had sandwiched between those calls to set up the meeting at Trump Tower,” he added.

Dem Rep. @AdamSchiff tells CNN’s @mkraju that he is not satisfied with President Trump’s written responses to special counsel Mueller’s questions: “There really needs to be a live interview with the President because you need to be able to ask follow-up questions in real time.” pic.twitter.com/80SM44KB0q

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) November 28, 2018

Schiff has promised that the committee, which he is expected to lead, will take greater action under Democratic leadership to pursue investigations Democrats demanded unsuccessfully under the GOP-led House. 

He has also threatened to press acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, the president’s replacement for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on possible ties to the White House or Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“If he has any involvement whatsoever in this Russia probe, we are going to find out whether he made commitments to the president about the probe, whether he is serving as a back channel to the president or his lawyers about the probe, whether he’s doing anything to interfere with the probe,” Schiff said earlier this month in an interview.

“Mr. Whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer.”