President Trump’s attorneys have begun drafting answers to written questions provided by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported Thursday, after months of negotiations surrounding a potential Trump interview with prosecutors.
The questions sent by Mueller to Trump’s legal team are related to the special counsel’s inquiry into any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election, CNN reported based on unnamed sources. Focusing on questions related to the period before Trump’s inauguration takes any claims of executive privilege off the table. Trump has denied he colluded with the Russians and has labeled Mueller’s investigation a witch hunt.
There still has not been a deal struck for Trump to sit down for an interview with Mueller’s team, CNN said, with prosecutors seeking to question Trump directly for the obstruction of justice aspect of its investigation. They two sides did agree, however, for Trump’s lawyers to start working on answering a round of written questions from Mueller, with special counsel also pushing for the opportunity for follow-up and additional rounds of questions, according to CNN’s report.