President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani maintained Thursday that the president would not answer any questions from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team about obstruction of justice, calling them a “no-go.”
“That is not going happen. There will be no questions at all on obstruction,” Giuliani told The Associated Press.
Trump’s legal team has been locked in ongoing negotiations for months over whether the president will sit for an interview with Mueller’s team.
The special counsel has been examining Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as whether Trump tried to block the probe itself.
Giuliani had said in July that told Mueller that Trump would only sit down with the special counsel’s team if obstruction questions were completely ruled out, though he said last month that such questions were still on the table.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that Mueller has agreed to accept some written answers from Trump regarding whether his 2016 campaign worked with Russia amid the Kremlin’s election interference.
Mueller’s team acknowledged that executive privilege issues could complicate their push for an interview with Trump about possible obstruction and didn’t ask for written responses on that matter, The New York Times reported.
Trump’s legal team is reportedly trying to prevent the president from sitting down with Mueller due to concern that the president could perjure himself.
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward in his upcoming book “Fear: Trump in the White House” reports that former White House lawyer John Dowd told Trump in March that sitting down with Mueller for an interview would end in imprisonment and perjury charges.