Washington
\nPresident Donald Trump on Friday said he had \u201cvery easily\u201d completed his written answers for Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation into Russia\u2019s role in the 2016 US election, but had not yet submitted them to Mueller\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he wrote the answers to the questions himself. \u201cMy lawyers don\u2019t write answers. I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. I\u2019ve answered them very easily,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The Republican president did not specify when his legal team would give Mueller his written responses, but a person familiar with the matter told Reuters they likely would be submitted next week. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re tricked-up because, you know, they like to catch people,\u201d Trump said, referring to questions that he suggested could be designed to result in perjury charges. \u201cYou have to always be careful when you answer, with people that probably have bad intentions. Now, the questions were very routinely answered by me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mueller is investigating whether members of Trump\u2019s campaign conspired with Moscow in the 2016 election and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe, which has clouded his presidency.<\/p>\n
Trump and his lawyers had been in negotiations with Mueller\u2019s team for months over how the president would be questioned as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s team agreed to have the president submit written answers to questions relating to Russia\u2019s role in the election, but it is still possible Mueller may press Trump to answer questions on potential obstruction at some point. Another open question is whether Trump will eventually sit for an interview.<\/p>\n
Tensions have risen over the probe since Trump last week ousted Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general and named Matthew Whitaker as his replacement on an acting basis. That move gave Whitaker, a Trump loyalist who Democrats have called a \u201cpolitical lackey,\u201d oversight of the Mueller probe.<\/p>\n
Mueller already has brought charges against a series of former Trump aides, including his former campaign chairman and his former national security adviser, as well as a number of Russian individuals and entities.<\/p>\n
A federal judge on Thursday refused to dismiss criminal charges against Concord Management and Consulting LLC, a Russia company accused by Mueller of funding a propaganda operation to sway the 2016 election in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n
Trump on Friday again called the probe a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and said there was no collusion. Russia has denied any interference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should have never been a so-called investigation, which, in theory, it\u2019s not an investigation of me. But … as far as I\u2019m concerned, I like to take everything personally because you do better that way,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington President Donald Trump on Friday said he had \u201cvery easily\u201d completed his written answers for Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation into Russia\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47508,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47506\/revisions\/47508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}