Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's written testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller showed Trump repeatedly responded to inquiries with brief denials or lack of recollection on wide-ranging topics, saying more than 30 times he did not recall, remember or recollect.

The answers were unsatisfying to Mueller, according to the public version of the special counsel report released Thursday . The report took the step of introducing Trump's answers by saying after the investigators received them, they informed Trump's lawyers of their "insufficiency," noting in particular that Trump "stated on more than 30 occasions that he 'does not recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection' of information called for by the questions."

Trump never sat for an in-person interview with the Mueller team, and Mueller opted to avoid a drawn-out legal fight with the President by not subpoenaing him for testimony outside of the written answers attributed to Trump.

In its written questions, the Mueller team focused on five topics for Trump: an infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian attorney; the dissemination of hacked emails from the Democratic Party; a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow; Manafort and Russia-related campaign issues; and a small section about the World Chess Championship.

On all topics, Trump's written answers said he did "not recall" or had "no recollection" of information the special counsel asked about.

Read More