President Donald Trump would be well served to provide detailed answers to the leaked questions from FBI special counsel Robert Mueller in an effort to avoid having to face questioning in person, attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz reacted to the more than four dozen questions The New York Times published Monday evening, inquiries the newspaper said came from Mueller's office. They provide a detailed look into what Mueller's team has found and is investigating as it probes whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

"If I were the president's lawyers – and I want to emphasize that I'm not – I would take advantage of these questions, and I think I would immediately offer to respond to all of them thoroughly in writing in an effort to try to avoid a face-to-face meeting," Dershowitz told CNN.

"And if that were rejected, I would say let's negotiate for four hours. Pick your best 20 questions and the president will sit down with you and with his lawyer and respond to the 20 questions."

Dershowitz admitted, however, he is not sure Mueller would accept written answers and might end up issuing a subpoena to Trump.

And if it comes to that, Trump should answer the questions rather than invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Dershowitz noted.

"He can invoke executive privilege," Dershowitz said. "Invoking the Fifth Amendment will do him absolutely no good . . . it will make him seem guilty, even though the Constitution says that's not proof of guilt."

Dershowitz added the open-ended questions are likely "designed to let [Trump] ramble and talk, and I suspect that that's the strategy of the special counsel because they know that may be President Trump's weakness."