Say nothing to Mueller, legal advisers tell Trump

Donald Trump’s lawyers had told him to can a proposed interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Donald Trump in Blue Ash outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Picture: Reuters

Donald Trump’s lawyers have advised him not to agree to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, fearing it would create a perjury trap for the US President.

The move sets up a potentially protracted legal battle if Mr Mueller subpoenas the President to appear before a grand jury and Mr Trump refuses to appear.

Legal opinion is divided as to whether Mr Mueller would have the legal right to compel a president to appear over Russian links to his 2016 election campaign.

Mr Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, and Mr Dowd’s deputy, Jay Sekulow, want the President to turn down Mr Mueller’s request for an interview, believing the special counsel would then be unlikely to take the matter to court, according to The New York Times.

They fear an interview would leave the President vulnerable to making false statements and contradicting himself, opening him up to the danger of a perjury charge.

Mr Trump has said he is willing to be interviewed by Mr Mueller because he has nothing to hide because there was no collusion.

“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” he said last month, although he added the final decision would be “subject to my lawyers”.

Refusing an interview would leave Mr Trump open to claims he has something to hide.

However, another White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, reportedly argues that the President should submit to the interview and co-operate fully with the investigation.

Mr Mueller requested an interview with Mr Trump in December and an interview was expected to be conducted within weeks.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump will have to decide whether to allow the release of a Democrat-written rebuttal to the Republican memo accusing the FBI of misconduct.

The move comes after the House Intelligence Committee yesterday voted unanimously to release the Democrat rebuttal, which claims the Republican memo was inaccurate and cherry­picked intelligence information.

The President has a choice between approving a memo the contents of which he will strongly disagree with, or blocking the release and leaving himself open to allegations of bias. He has four days to decide.

“It is going to be very hard for the White House not to release this,” the senior Democrat of the committee, Adam Schiff, said yesterday. “We think this will help inform the public of the many distortions and inaccuracies (in the Republican memo).

“There is a rising sense of panic, clearly, within the White House as well as on the Hill.” He said the Democrats wanted to ensure the White House did not try to redact parts of it for political purposes.

Democrats had given a copy of it to the FBI and the Justice Department for their advice as to whether there were security concerns in releasing the memo.

The Democrat document is expected to refute the key claim in the Republican memo that the FBI failed to disclose important information to a judge when applying for a warrant in October 2016.

Republicans alleged that the FBI used information in their application that was sourced by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was funded to research Mr Trump by the Democrats.

The FBI was seeking a warrant to wiretap then Trump adviser Carter Page about his alleged contacts with Russian officials.

The Republicans say the alleged failure of the FBI to disclose that the Steele information was funded by Democrats showed political bias by the FBI.

Mr Trump yesterday talked about the Republican memo in a speech in Ohio.

“Oh, but did we catch them in the act or what?” he said. “You know what I’m talking about. Oh, did we catch them in the act. They are very embarrassed. They never thought they were going to get caught. We caught them. Hey, we caught them. It’s so much fun — we’re like the great sleuth.”

Earlier he attacked Mr Schiff, tweeting: “Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!”

Mr Schiff replied: “Mr President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of ‘Executive Time’. Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or ... really anything else.”

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia