President Trump’s lawyers are discussing ways to respond to an expected request by special counsel Robert Mueller to interview him — including offering written answers instead of a face-to-face meeting, according to a report.

The president’s legal team has been discussing with FBI officials a possible interview by Mueller as part of the sweeping probe into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, a source told NBC News.

The lawyers are seeking clarification on whether Trump would be interviewed directly by the special counsel, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of an interview, the topics and the duration, according to the report.

But the legal team also is pursuing possible compromises that could avoid an interview altogether, two people familiar with the matter told the network.

One person familiar with the strategy said the discussions among Trump’s lawyers began soon after the president’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was indicted in late October for money laundering in connection with his business ties with Ukraine.

Trump’s legal team met with representatives from Mueller’s office in late December, according to NBC News.

Two of Trump’s lawyers, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, declined comment. A third, Jay Sekulow, did not respond to NBC’s request for comment. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment.

A second person familiar with the president’s legal maneuverings told NBC that another possibility being mulled was an affidavit signed by the president affirming he was innocent of any wrongdoing and denying any collusion.

It was unclear what such an affidavit might address regarding the president’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 during the time he was leading the Russia investigation.

But Justice Department veterans were skeptical that Mueller, who headed the FBI for 12 years, would agree to anything but a formal sit-down with the president.

“Prosecutors want to see and hear folks in person,” said Chuck Rosenberg, former US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and chief of staff to Comey.

“They want to probe and follow up. Body language and tone are important,” said Rosenberg, an NBC News analyst. “And they want answers directly from witnesses, not from their lawyers. The odds of prosecutors agreeing to written responses are somewhere between infinitesimally small and zero.”

Criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz described the Trump legal team’s machinations as “gamesmanship. It’s what any criminal defense attorney would do.”

“I would never let the prosecution interview my client, but I don’t represent the president of the United States, and presidents don’t want to plead the Fifth. So this route makes sense,” said Dershowitz, adding that the defense’s strategy does not mean they are presuming Trump is guilty of wrongdoing.

Trump has continued to insist publicly that he is not under investigation and has described the Justice Department probe as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”