Trump lashes out at investigation into obstruction of justice
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday called an investigation into possible obstruction of justice a "setup & trap" in a defiant morning tweet in which he once again asserted that there was no wrongdoing to be uncovered in the special counsel investigation.
Trump's tweet comes amid ongoing negotiations between his lawyers and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III over whether the president will consent to an interview as part of the probe of Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election.
In March, Mueller warned during a meeting with Trump's lawyers that he could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.
There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap). What there is is Negotiations going on with North Korea over Nuclear War, Negotiations going on with China over Trade Deficits, Negotiations on NAFTA, and much more. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)Muelle> has been investigating both whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation and has signaled he would like to question Trump in both areas.
"There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap)," Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning, again calling the investigation a "Witch Hunt!"
Trump also suggested he was more focused on the duties of his office, including negotiations over the denuclearization of North Korea and trade agreements.
Trump had said previously that he would be willing to have a face-to-face meeting with Mueller or his team, but more recently he has wavered on the prospect. Some of Trump's advisers have counseled that he could risk being accused of perjury if he submits to open-ended questioning from Mueller and provides meandering answers.
Following a testy meeting in March, Mueller's team agreed to provide the president's lawyers with more specific information about the subjects that prosecutors wished to discuss with the president.
With those details in hand, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow compiled a list of 49 questions that the team believed the president would be asked, according to people familiar with the encounter.
The questions focus on events during the Trump campaign, transition and presidency that have long been known to be under scrutiny, including the president's reasons for firing then-FBI Director James Comey and the pressure he put on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested on Twitter that he would not be vulnerable to obstruction charges if there were no coordination between his campaign and Russia.
"It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!" Trump wrote.
But that, many legal experts say is a misunderstanding of the law, that people can be charged by prosecutors with obstruction of justice even if no underlying crime is proven.
Appearing on Fox News on Wednesday, lawyer Victoria Toensing warned that Trump could be accused of perjury if something he said in an interview with Mueller conflicted with claims by Comey.
Toensing, who was recruited for Trump's legal team but did not join because of client conflicts, recalled the case of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney.
Libby, whom Toensing represented, was convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges in 2007 stemming from an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity. But Libby was never charged with leaking the officer's identity.
Trump issued a pardon to Libby last month.
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The Washington Post's Carol Leonnig and Robert Costa contributed to this report.