President Donald
Trump
said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
"I'm looking forward to it, actually,"
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of an interview with Mueller, a former FBI Director. "I would do it under oath."
Although
Trump
has pledged cooperation with Mueller's probe before,
he
made his assertion as the White House and allies in Congress have stepped up attacks on the investigation's credibility and
Trump
himself has hedged on whether he would answer questions.
His attorneys have been talking to Mueller's team about an interview, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.
"I would like to do it as soon as possible,"
Trump
said.
Trump, however, said that setting a date certain for an interview would be "subject to my lawyers and all of that." Asked whether he thought Mueller would treat him fairly,
Trump
replied, "We're going to find out."
Ty Cobb, the lawyer in charge of the White House response to Mueller's probe, said
Trump
was speaking hurriedly and intended only to say that he was willing to meet with the special counsel's team, the New York Times reported.
"He’s ready to meet with them, but he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” the newspaper quoted Cobb as saying. Cobb said that Mueller’s team and
Trump's personal lawyers were working out the arrangements for a meeting.
Sources told Reuters earlier Wednesday that senior US intelligence officers including CIA director Mike Pompeo have been questioned by the special counsel's team about whether
Trump
tried to obstruct justice in the Russia probe.
Such questioning is further indication that Mueller's criminal investigation into purported Russian interference in the election and potential collusion by
Trump's campaign includes examining the president's actions around the probe.
In his remarks to reporters on Wednesday,
Trump
repeated past statements that there was no collusion between the campaign and Russia and "there's no obstruction whatsoever."
The Kremlin has denied conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election campaign using hacking and propaganda to try to tilt the race in
Trump's favor.
Trump
on Wednesday denied a Washington Post report that last year he had asked then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe whom he had voted for in 2016, which reportedly left McCabe concerned about civil servants being interrogated about their political leanings.
"I don't think so. I don't think I did. I don't know what's the big deal with that, because I would ask you,"
Trump
said to reporters.
In interviews last year with Pompeo, National Intelligence director Dan Coats and National Security Agency director Admiral Mike Rogers, the sources said Mueller's team focused on whether
Trump
had asked them to lean on James Comey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director until
Trump
fired him in May.
Comey said
Trump
dismissed him to try to undermine the agency's Russia investigation. His firing led to Mueller's appointment to take over the FBI probe and is central to whether
Trump
may have committed obstruction of justice.
Mueller also asked the officials if
Trump
tried to shut down intelligence investigations into Russian election meddling and into contacts between Russian officials connected with President Vladimir Putin's government and associates of
Trump
or his campaign, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Representatives for the CIA declined to comment on whether Pompeo had been interviewed.
More than 20 White House personnel have voluntarily given interviews to Mueller’s team, Fox News reported Wednesday.
It is unusual for FBI interviews to be conducted under oath, but even if
Trump
is not interviewed by Mueller's team under oath, it would still be a crime for him to lie to federal agents, said Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School and a former associate counsel to president Barack Obama.
That is the charge to which former
Trump
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former
Trump
campaign adviser George Papadopoulos have both pleaded guilty.
An oath would be administered if Mueller issues a subpoena for
Trump
to testify before a grand jury as opposed to a private interview, Wright said.
In 1998, charges that then-president Bill Clinton lied under oath to a federal grand jury about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky help lead to his impeachment by the US House of Representatives. Clinton was acquitted.