Mueller’s questions for Trump unearthed
WASHINGTON — Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s election interference, has at least four dozen questions that he wants to ask President Donald Trump to learn more about his ties to Russia and determine whether he obstructed the inquiry itself, according to a list of the questions obtained by The New York Times.
The open-ended queries appear to be an attempt to get at the motivation behind some of the president’s most-combative Twitter posts and to examine his relationships with his family and closest advisers. They deal chiefly with the president’s highprofile firings of the FBI director and his first national security adviser, his treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
But they also touch on the president’s businesses; any discussions with his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a Moscow real estate deal; whether the president knew of any attempt by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to set up a back channel to Russia during the transition; any contacts he had with Roger Stone, a longtime adviser who claimed to have inside information about Democratic email hackings; and what happened during Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.
The questions provide the mostdetailed look yet inside Mueller’s investigation. The majority relate to possible obstruction of justice, demonstrating how an investigation into Russia’s election meddling grew to include an examination of the president’s conduct in office. Among them are queries on any discussions Trump had about his attempts to fire Mueller himself and what the president knew about possible pardon offers to Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser.
“What efforts were made to reach out to Mr. Flynn about seeking immunity or possible pardon?” Mueller planned to ask, according to questions read by the special counsel investigators to the president’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That document was provided to the Times by a person outside Trump’s legal team.