Chuck Ross on April 30, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted a list of 48 questions to President Donald Trump’s legal team he hopes to have answered in a prospective interview as part of the investigation into possible obstruction of justice and campaign collusion with Russia.
The New York Times obtained the list of questions, which are moistly related to a potential obstruction of justice case against Trump.
Five questions relate to Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who was forced to resign on Feb. 13, 2017. Eighteen questions focus on James Comey, who Trump fired as FBI director on May 9, 2017. Eight questions center on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and 13 regard possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
Perhaps the most intriguing question regarding possible collusion is about Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.
“What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?” One question reads.
“It is not clear whether Mr. Mueller knows something new, but there is no publicly available information linking Mr. Manafort, the former campaign chairman, to such outreach,” The Times noted.
Mueller has indicted Manafort on money laundering and bank fraud charges related to his work for a Ukrainian political party several years before he joined the Trump campaign in April 2016. Rick Gates, a former Manafort business partner and Trump campaign aide, is cooperating with Mueller’s prosecutors as part of a plea deal.
It remains unclear whether Mueller is investigating Manafort’s campaign activities. But some of Manafort’s campaign emails showed he offered to provide campaign briefings to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
Deripaska and Manafort had been in a dispute over a $19 million business deal involving a Ukrainian cable company.
On the Russia front, Mueller also hopes to ask Trump when he first learned of the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted the meeting with a Russian delegation after being offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. The meeting’s participants, which included Manafort and Kushner, have claimed the meeting was insignificant and a waste of time.
Mueller also wants to quiz Trump about whether he knew about Russian hacking during the campaign. One of the unproven theories of collusion is members of the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government to release emails stolen from the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.
“During the campaign, what did you know about Russian hacking, use of social media, or other acts aimed at the campaign?” Mueller’s question reads.
Another question on the list deals with Trump’s visit to Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. Mueller specifically asks what communication Trump had with Russian government officials and the Agalrovs, an Azerbaijani-Russian family who partnered with Trump on the pageant. Aras and Emin Agalarov also helped arrange the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
Regarding Flynn, Mueller wants to know what Trump knew about the retired general’s phone calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about those phone calls, which occurred in December 2016. He was fired on Feb. 13, 2017 — purportedly because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the phone calls.
The bulk of Mueller’s questions focus on Comey, and Trump’s conversations with the ousted FBI director. Mueller hopes to ask Trump the purpose for several meetings he had with Comey during the early days of his presidency. Comey wrote memos following those meetings. Trump asked Comey to back off of the investigation of Flynn, the former FBI director claimed in a Feb. 14, 2017 memo.
Mueller also wants to find out Trump’s thought process in deciding to fire Comey.
“When was it made? Why? Who played a role?” Another question on the list states.
Trump’s legal team is reportedly undecided about whether he should sit for an interview with Mueller. John Dowd, who was the top lawyer on the legal squad, reportedly opposed an interview. Mueller’s team has reportedly told Trump’s lawyers he is not a target of the investigation. That would suggest charges are not expected against Trump. But an interview with Mueller could open Trump up to perjury charges if he gives false statements.
None of those questions have anything to do with obstruction, or the ORIGINAL charge, collusion. It’s a fishing expedition, plain and simple. Mueller wants to catch Trump in a lie about opinion so he can indict him for lying to the FBI under oath. Nothing more. Mueller has nothing and he knows it. He’s simply rushing into this because he’s afraid his little investigation is going to be shut down because it is illegal. Yes, I said ILLEGAL Special counsels are convened to investigate crimes, not people. Collusion is not a crime. President Trump was well within his rights, constitutionally, to fire Comey. This is a witch hunt, plain and simple, and it is going to severely damage the Democrat party in the mid-term elections, whether it ends now or later.
If Trump was my client, I would tell him to get himself another lawyer is he is stupid enough to talk to Mueller. I do not consider myself to be the best Lawyer in the world (well, OK, maybe I do but I am willing to admit there are others nearly as good ;)), but even I can see those questions are so full of “gotcha” trips that NO ONE could escape.
One of the most OBVIOUS is the “what did you know ” trap. Even if the idiot (who talks to the PERsecutor provides enough information to fill 20 pages of single spaced transcripts, there is always the “Is there anything else” question which means the idiot can be charged with lying if someone else said X farted twice during the meeting and you failed to mention it.
For a more refined presentation, see :
https://youtu.be/CkZf6_jK3Zs?t=78
This is effing stupid, I thought this garbage was over, having been officially declared there was NO collusion, (which the intelligent people already knew all along). I’m so sick to death of hearing about that I could puke.
What is wrong with the “I don’t recollect,” answer?
I hope Trump continues to not dignify the investigation with his presence. May not be a bad idea to write out answers approved by his attorneys and then read on some media outlet…
ANSWER them one by one, through a Conservative media! Fox and/or RUSH! That way President Trump would have control and not a GROWING slate of Progressive Puppets! Minions doing the work, while mueller mulls over the menu, pocketing MILLIONS!
What kind of answer do you give for a question that is asked without a topic? Mueller is on the ‘team’ that hates Trump and is simply trying to find a reasonable reason to question him.
Trump and his legal team should Mueller to take his list of questions and stick them where the sun does not shine. Mueller is trying to get answers thar he can twist and make up false evidence which is what Mueller is great at doing. Mueller is a Dirty Crooked, Corrupt POS.
Marjorie posting: Only the swamp doesn’t want Mueller fired. The dems are still trying to find a way to fire Trump. The dems fight dirty and twist facts. Dems that wanted evil criminal hillary to win canNOT be trusted to be fair and impartial when it comes to Trump. Trump cannot ask for a change of venue, as the dems have trash talked Trump since mid-2015. Trump needs to stop listening to the swamp and follow common sense. Mueller needs to be fired and the witch hunt needs to end. There was no collusion with Russia and Trump is not guilty of obstruction of justice. All that falls on the shoulders of the dem leadership, not Trump. Fire Mueller and Rosenstein, like you fired Comey. If Jeff Sessions quits because of it, well good riddance. One less swamp creature you don’t have fire. The world will NOT come to an end because Mueller & Rosenstein are fired.
If Sessions quits because he fires Rosenstein and Mueller, that tells you where Sessions stands, doesn’t it? And would explain why he constantly rebukes himself from all ‘arguments’.
Should it be assumed President Trump will be treated the same way as General Flynn; i.e., tricked into telling a falsehood he never made, according to mueller’s Inquisitor’s.
This is mueller and his Inquisitor’s last stand and they know it, as they have no evidence of wrong-doing on the President’s side and only 4 to 5 tons of DOCUMENTED evidence to charge “the witch”, her Coven, DNC, Greenies, comey and his corrupt leaders, as well as other Alphabet Agency “leaders”?
When will mueller end this corrupt investigation and go home, so a genuine honest investigation can begin on those who really committed Crimes, Sedition and Treason; i.e., those on the Left.