Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking an interview with Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for President Donald Trump’s legal team, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, in what would be the first contact between the special counsel and a onetime member of the president’s personal legal team.

Mr. Corallo was hired last spring by Marc Kasowitz, Mr. Trump’s longtime personal attorney whom the president had initially tapped to represent him in the Mueller probe. In July, Mr. Kasowitz took on a lesser role in the president’s legal team, and Mr. Corallo resigned from his post.

Mr. Corallo’s resignation followed the revelation that Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, had arranged a Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 between a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin and top campaign aides, including senior adviser Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Mr. Corallo had privately expressed frustration over the administration’s handling of reports about that meeting, the Journal previously reported.

A lawyer for Mr. Corallo and a spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.

Mr. Mueller’s request to interview Mr. Corallo was reported earlier by ABC News.


Mr. Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and whether the president obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey, whose agency had started the Russia probe. The president has denied both allegations and Moscow has said it didn’t meddle in the election.

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When news of the New York meeting first broke, Mr. Trump Jr. said the participants “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” Emails he subsequently released showed he took the meeting after he was told that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton that was being offered by the Russian government in support of Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

As part of his probe of obstruction of justice, Mr. Mueller is examining an Air Force One flight that followed initial reports about the Trump Tower meeting during which top White House advisers, including the president, crafted a statement about that meeting, the Journal has reported.

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Mr. Corallo hired a lawyer earlier this month after he was featured in Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” a book the president has repeatedly attacked. Mr. Wolff wrote that Mr. Corallo quit after “privately confiding that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice.”


Mr. Mueller has also interviewed or plans to interview dozens of current and former White House aides, including Mr. Kushner, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and communications director Hope Hicks.

The president’s legal team is also debating whether to allow Mr. Trump to interview with Mr. Mueller, which the president last week told reporters he was “looking forward” to doing. Yet Mr. Trump’s lawyers have been studying a 1990s federal court ruling that could serve as a basis for delaying, limiting or avoiding an interview with Mr. Mueller, the Journal reported last week.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com