President Trump said Friday that he is willing to sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller but doesn’t want to it to be “a perjury trap.”
“I’d do it, but under certain circumstances,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Mr. Trump team has gone back and forth about doing an interview in the Russia probe, although the president consistently says he has nothing to hide.
Mr. Mueller’s office gave Mr. Trump’s team a proposal Thursday with a “formula” for doing an interview, said lead Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The formula includes a follow-up interview to Mr. Trump’s answers to written questions.
Mr. Trump said others had been trapped by the probe, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign early in the administration.
“I don’t want to be set up with a perjury trap,” said Mr. Trump.
The president insisted that the Russia probe was a ginned-up attack by his political enemies.
“There was no talking to Russia. There was no phone calls. I didn’t make phone calls to Russia. I didn’t receive phone calls. I didn’t have meetings. I didn’t have texts. Anything. I have nothing to do with Russia,” said Mr. Trump.
“If we’re going to meet, it’s got to be a fair meeting,” he said.
He called the investigation “a big waste of time.”
The special counsel first targeted alleged Trump campaign collusion with the Kremlin but then expanded the scope to look at obstruction of justice, campaign finance and possibly other issues.
“It’s such a sad thing for our country to be going through a witch hunt like that. It’s so hard for us to deal with other countries including Russia because of that witch hunt,” said Mr. Trump.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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