Trump’s answers, yet to be submitted to Mueller, represent his first official comment to prosecutors probing collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has finished writing answers to questions posed by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign – a potential milestone in the long-running investigation.
Trump’s responses, once submitted to Mueller’s team, would represent the president’s first official comment to prosecutors in an investigation that has drawn guilty pleas from several of his former top aides and cast a shadow over the White House.
“You always have to be careful answering questions for people who have bad intentions,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Mueller’s questions, attempting to cast doubt on the team assembled by the special counsel.
“I haven’t submitted them. I just finished them.”
A person familiar with the process, who declined to speak publicly about the closed-door preparation, said Trump was close to completing his answers.
Trump has repeatedly blasted the Russia investigation as a witch hunt and tweeted earlier this week that Mueller’s team was “a disgrace to our Nation.”
Trump has met with his legal team multiple times this week, but he told reporters that he’s handling the answers himself.
“My lawyers aren’t working on it,” he said. “I’m working on it. My lawyers don’t write the answers.”
The specific questions posed by Mueller’s team have not been made public.
Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who is representing the president, told T he Washington Post on Thursday that all the topics involve events before the 2016 election.
Trump has denied any conspiracy with the Russians, who hacked Democratic Party emails and spread disinformation on social media to boost his campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 individuals and three companies since last year, when he began leading the investigation.
The group includes four former Trump advisers, 26 Russians, three Russian companies, one California man and a former London-based lawyer.
Trump’s former lawyer also pleaded guilty in New York in a separate criminal case arising from the Russia investigation.
This story includes additional reporting by Kyodo
