President Donald Trump’s legal team submitted a counteroffer to special counsel Robert Mueller with specific demands for an interview with the president himself, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Rudy Giuliani, who leads Trump’s legal team, told the newspaper on Monday that an interview is “still on the table.” Trump would answer questions on Russian collusion in the 2016 U.S. election, but not on obstruction of justice, Giuliani said. Mueller’s team has yet to respond to the offer, Giuliani told Bloomberg News.
Giuliani said earlier this month that Trump would answer “narrow” questions from Mueller during an interview as long as the investigation was nearing its end, although the timing for such an interview remains unclear.
Trump has repeatedly said his campaign did not collude with Moscow, and calls the probe a “witch hunt.” He has offered to speak with Mueller to make that clear.
The special counsel and Trump’s lawyers have been negotiating terms for an interview for months. Mueller’s team reportedly has presented Trump’s representatives with a list of questions they hope to ask the president, and Mueller has warned the lawyers he has the power to subpoena Trump if negotiations fail.
The investigation has so far resulted in the indictment of 12 Russian nationals on charges of hacking the Democratic National Committee server during the 2016 election.