Trump: 'I would love to speak' to special counsel Mueller, wants to be treated 'fairly'
The president said he will talk if Mueller treats him "fairly."
President Donald Trump said today he "would love to speak" with special counsel Robert Mueller as long as he can get assurances he would be treated fairly.
"I would love to go ... nothing I would love to do more," Trump said of a potential sit-down interview with the lead investigator of the Russia election interference probe. "If I thought [the interview] was fair I would override my lawyers."
The president spoke to reporters on the south lawn of the White House and on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews before heading to deliver remarks at the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas, Texas.
Trump today again accused Mueller of having partisan investigators.
"You have a group of investigators that are all Democrats," Trump said of Mueller and his team.
Mueller is a Republican and was appointed by another Republican, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to lead the investigation. Thirteen of the 17 lawyers on Mueller's team have either registered as or donated to Democrats, according to available records.
However, it would be a violation of Department of Justice regulations for Mueller to consider political affiliation when hiring prosecutors. The president also falsely claimed today that Mueller worked for Obama for eight years - his full term. In fact, Mueller was appointed by George W. Bush to head the FBI in 2001 and served in that position for five years under Obama.
Trump's new lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said any interview between Trump and Mueller must have parameters and cannot last more than three hours.
Trump also responded today to the ongoing controversy behind Giuliani's recent revelation that he reimbursed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels. That statement from Giuliani directly contradicted a prior claim by the president that he was unaware of the payment to Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006.
"Rudy is great guy but he just started a day ago," Trump said. (Giuliani actually started two weeks ago).
"He’s working hard learning the subject matter, and he’s going to be issuing a statement too," Trump added.
Giuliani has done numerous television interviews in recent days, including with ABC News, and has stood behind his comments. The president did not make immediately clear why Giuliani would be issuing a new statement.
"He’ll get his facts straight, he’s a great guy," Trump said.
Later Friday, Giuliani issued a statement "intended to clarify the views I expressed over the past few days."
"My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President’s knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters," Giuliani wrote in the statement, without referencing what statement he was clarifying.
He also added a statement about the president's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey — again without saying what the previous statement he was clarifying.
"It is undisputed that the president’s dismissal of former Director Comey – an inferior executive officer – was clearly within his Article II power," Giuliani said. "Recent revelations about former Director Comey further confirm the wisdom of the President’s decision, which was plainly in the best interests of our nation."
Earlier in the week, Giuliani made waves when he told Fox's Sean Hannity that "(Trump) fired Comey because Comey would not, among to other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation."
"He's entitled to that... So he fired him. And then he said, 'I'm free of (these) guys.'"
President Trump said Friday that he fired Comey because of reasons laid out in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's memo which was critical of Comey's handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.
Mueller has expressed interest in probing the president on the circumstances surrounding Comey's firing.
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