Two of President Trump’s lawyers told Special Counsel Robert Mueller to back off from his demand for an interview with their client – arguing that the president has a constitutional right to “terminate the inquiry” any time he wishes.
The move came though Trump has repeatedly said he’s willing to testify and end the lengthy probe of Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential campaign. The letter was sent to Mueller in January and published in the New York Times on Saturday.
The Mueller investigation has expanded to probe whether Trump’s May 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey amounted to obstruction of justice.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Trump said in January when reporters asked him about a potential interview with the special counsel. “I would do it under oath.”
But at the same time, attorneys John Dowd – who has since left Trump’s legal team – and Jay Sekulow were privately pushing back in their hand-delivered Jan. 29 letter.
“The President’s actions… could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself,” the lawyers argued.
“He could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired,” they wrote.
Trump apparently got heads-up that the missive was about to be made public.
“When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end?” he moaned in a Saturday tweet, shortly before the story was published online. “Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers [sic] letters to the Fake News Media? Should be looking at Dems corruption instead?”