US President Donald Trump on Friday said he had personally written — although not yet submitted — answers to the questions put to the White House by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, while once more assailing the probe as a “witch hunt.”
Trump ended months of speculation on whether he would respond to questions from Mueller, who is investigating whether the president’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Russians and if Trump illegally obstructed the probe.
“I answered the questions very easily,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I haven’t submitted them yet. I just finished them. As you know, I’ve been a bit busy.”
“The questions were very routinely answered by me,” Trump added. “I don’t need lawyers to do them. You need lawyers to go over some of the answers. They were not very difficult questions.”
The confirmation came nine days after Trump installed a new Acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, who has been strongly critical of Mueller.
Early this year, Mueller’s team of investigators submitted a long list of questions to the White House that indicated interest in both the allegations of collusion and obstruction.
Since then the two sides have reportedly jousted over whether Trump had to answer and how he would do so.
Trump’s lawyers have said that Mueller is seeking to trap Trump in a minor lie to be able to accuse him of perjury.
“I’m sure they are tricked up because they like to catch people — was the weather sunny or rainy,” Trump said on Friday of the questions. “You have to be careful with people who have bad intentions.”
On Thursday, Trump railed against Mueller on Twitter, alleging that the investigation was politically biased and had used threats against witnesses.
“They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want,” he wrote. “They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t care how many lives they ruin.”
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