President Donald Trump's lawyers have long been negotiating with special counsel Robert Mueller over a sit-down interview with the president, which for now seems to be avoided. | Andrew Burton/Getty Images White House Trump lawyers working on answers to Mueller's Russia conspiracy questions

Special counsel Robert Mueller has delivered written questions to President Donald Trump and his lawyers about a potential Russian conspiracy with the Republican’s 2016 campaign to influence the election, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The submitted questions bypass — for now — a high-stakes legal fight over whether Mueller will try to force a sit-down interview with the president via subpoena. It also represents a small breakthrough in negotiations between Trump’s lawyers and the special counsel that have been moving ahead in fits and starts for nearly a year.


In sending over their written questions, Mueller’s prosecutors told the president’s legal team they wouldn’t rule out asking the president follow-ups based on the answers they get, the source said.

It’s unclear how long Trump’s team has to answer Mueller’s questions. Even so, the president’s lawyers have been preparing for months to respond to the special counsel on the record and under penalty of perjury if they give false or misleading responses.

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Trump also has repeatedly said he’d be willing to sit for a Mueller interview, even as his lawyers and many of his allies and advisers have warned him against taking that step, given his penchant to veer off topic and stretch the truth.

During a Thursday call to the morning show “Fox & Friends,” the president said he remains open to either a sit-down interview with Mueller or responding to his written questions.

“Well, it seems ridiculous that I would have to do it when everybody says there’s no collusion, but I’ll do what is necessary to get it over with,” the president said.

CNN first reported Thursday that Mueller had sent questions to Trump’s lawyers.

A spokesman for Mueller did not respond to a request for comment.

“We have ongoing dialogue with the special counsel, and we’re not discussing the contents,” Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer, told POLITICO.

One topic that does appear to be left out of the first round of written questions submitted to the president’s legal team: obstruction of justice, including Trump’s May 2017 firing of James Comey as FBI director.

Trump’s lawyers have given mixed signals on whether they’re willing to let the president respond to that topic.

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor from New York, said Mueller’s apparent willingness to take written answers on questions surrounding a potential conspiracy with Russia during the 2016 campaign suggests that the special counsel is focused on very specific pieces of conduct, like who spoke with who and when, “and does not see much wiggle room for the president in his responses.”

More notable, Honig added, is that Mueller for the moment isn’t willing to accept written responses on the obstruction front and may indeed be prepping for a legal fight that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

“That suggests Mueller is committed to an in-person interrogation of the president, either by voluntary interview or by subpoena if necessary,” he said.

Trump isn’t the first president to get the chance to answer written questions about his role in a high-profile investigation. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan submitted written answers to independent counsel Lawrence Walsh during his investigation of the Iran-Contra affair.

By contrast, independent counsel Kenneth Starr in 1998 had to obtain the first-ever subpoena for federal grand jury testimony from a sitting president as he pushed for answers about President Bill Clinton’s relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton’s attorneys ultimately negotiated with Starr, and the president was interviewed in the White House Map Room, with the grand jury watching via a live video feed back in the federal courthouse in Washington.

Some of the Democratic president’s answers — including arguing over the definition of “sexual relations” and the meaning of the word “is” — became central to a Republican-led impeachment effort in the House of Representatives on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.

Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, warned on Thursday against Trump’s submitting written responses “in any way” given the legal consequences.

“Mueller has come up so empty on collusion that this may be a final stab at a perjury trap,” said Flaherty, who runs a conservative nonprofit that is funding a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the special counsel’s appointment.

Other former federal prosecutors said Mueller had notched an accomplishment by putting written questions in front of the president’s lawyers.

“If Mueller thinks that Trump will never sit down for an interview on these topics in any event, posing written questions makes a lot of sense,” said Renato Mariotti, a former assistant U.S. attorney from Chicago. “No matter what position Trump takes, he will lock himself in and potentially foreclose other possible defenses.”

David Weinstein, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, said written questions were the “standard path” in investigations to help determine whether someone is a witness or a full-blown target in the investigation.

While Trump and his lawyers may want to speed up the process and get some finality without the president’s sitting for an interview, Weinstein said the first exchange of information could end up being just one step in a longer process.

“The answers,” he said, “may simply bring more questions and extend the investigation.”