Special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly rejected an offer from President Trump’s legal team to answer written questions.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, now the public face of Mr. Trump’s legal team, told NBC News on Monday that he made the offer “about 10 days ago during his first meeting with Mueller.”

“Rudy Giuliani confirms to NBC News that special counsel Robert Mueller rejected a Trump-team offer for the president to answer written questions in lieu of a sit-down interview,” NBC tweeted.

Rudy Giuliani confirms to NBC News that special counsel Robert Mueller rejected a Trump-team offer for the president to answer written questions in lieu of a sit-down interview. Giuliani says this happened about 10 days ago during his first meeting with Mueller. — NBC News (@NBCNews) May 8, 2018

In an interview Sunday, Mr. Giuliani had said he doesn’t want Mr. Trump to be interviewed orally and/or under oath by Mr. Mueller, saying that the experienced prosecutor could be setting up a perjury trap, making an explicit analogy to the Martha Stewart insider-trading case.

Mr. Giuliani and other Trump attorneys, present and past, fear that the loquacious and self-confident president might say something about Russia or his campaign that would be an obstruction of an investigation without there ever having been an underlying crime. The ex-mayor said Sunday he wanted the sitting president to get at least as much deference as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did in the investigation of her email server.