Mueller Has Dozens of Inquiries for Trump in Broad Quest on Russia Ties and Obstruction

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s election interference, has at least four dozen questions on an exhaustive array of subjects he wants to ask President Trump to learn more about his ties to Russia and determine whether he obstructed the inquiry itself, according to a list of the questions obtained by The New York Times.

The open-ended queries appear to be an attempt to penetrate the president’s thinking, to get at the motivation behind some of his most combative Twitter posts and to examine his relationships with his family and his closest advisers. They deal chiefly with the president’s high-profile firings of the F.B.I. director and his first national security adviser, his treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

But they also touch on the president’s businesses; any discussions with his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, about a Moscow real estate deal; whether the president knew of any attempt by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to set up a back channel to Russia during the transition; any contacts he had with Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser who claimed to have inside information about Democratic email hackings; and what happened during Mr. Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.

The questions provide the most detailed look yet inside Mr. Mueller’s investigation, which has been shrouded in secrecy since he was appointed nearly a year ago. The majority relate to possible obstruction of justice, demonstrating how an investigation into Russia’s election meddling grew to include an examination of the president’s conduct in office. Among them are queries on any discussions Mr. Trump had about his attempts to fire Mr. Mueller himself and what the president knew about possible pardon offers to Mr. Flynn.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/robert-mueller-questions-trump.html

---

Here is a link to the actual questions: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/questions-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump-russia.html

[mucifer]

1. So why were the questions leaked?

[rurallib]

4. really curious also, but I am sure Mueller has a reason.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Trump attorneys got them from Mueller (negotiations). Their side is surely the source of the leak.

Purposeful or otherwise? Dunno.

High or low level leak? Dunno.

Or conceivably FBI / Mueller, see post 13.

[Mrs. Overall]

2. Rachel Maddow is covering this story on her show right now.

[LenaBaby61]

3. Fatso's NOT going to be able to answer ANY of those questions ...

Rachel's reading ....

As someone on the site said, there is NO way Mueller doesn't already have the answers to the questions he'll be asking Fatso.

The only thing, why were these questions leaked by the NY Times right now 🤔

[Sneederbunk]

5. Guarantees that Trump will never meet with Mueller.

[LenaBaby61]

6. Guarantees that Trump will never meet with Mueller.

BINGO.

[Mrs. Overall]

8. This means the President is a SUBJECT, not a witness. Former US Attorney saying this on Rachel now.

[Upthevibe]

9. Wow! Watching Rachel now...

.......

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Who is more deluded, Trump or those thinking he will provide logically consistent answers

[uponit7771]

11. Easier to tell he's lying if he got the questions in advance

[oswaldactedalone]

12. US Attorney Rosenberg

also said that there are more likely many more questions. He also said, "Have the questions been released as a courtesy to the President or have they been released knowing Trump won't meet with Mueller?"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Must be Trump's side (from negotiations). Maybe signaling other participants to coordinate.

Conceivably could be a Mueller or FBI leak designed to make named participants buggy (Kushner, Stone, Sessions, DonJr, Ed, etc.) so that they coordinate and email and phone and thus drop other good bits of information to be scooped up and fitted into the jigsaw puzzle.

[shraby]

14. Mueller already knows the answers to those questions. He wouldn't be asking

about what he doesn't know, so that precludes coordination with the others.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. I wasn't suggesting Mueller coordinating, rather participants coordinating among themselves.

It's a standard intelligence technique: leak a little info that you already know so you can get the target(s) buggy.

A calls B and say "What about the X issue?" (Mueller already knows about X.)

B says "That's taken care of, but this impacts the Y issue." (Mueller just learned about Y for the first time.)

Mueller knows the answers to the questions, but the way in which targets try to evade and hide information is revealing about their roles and other information. Further, if one tries to lie, then a pressure point opens up.

[mitch96]

26. "already knows the answers to those questions"

I was thinking the same thing.. Like in chess thinking 2,3 or 4 moves ahead. First trap is asking questions with known answers. Not collusion but lying to the special council. Also this will get the prez legal team running in one direction while concentrating on the main area of prosecution. The classic fake maneuver... This is gonna be interesting..
m

[QED]

15. Who leaked the questions?

Dowd? Rudy? Melania?

[Mrs. Overall]

18. The reporter who broke the story was just on Rachel Maddow. He seems to indicate the questions were

obtained directly from Mueller's office.

(on edit--hmmm, maybe not. The source is unsure at this time. Rachel's show is going back and forth as to who gave the questions to the NYT)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. That does not jive with post 16, which indicates they were prepared by Trump's team from phone convo

Since they were prepared from notes from phone conversations, prepared by Trump's team, it is unlikely that his team leaked them to Mueller's team so they could leak them to the NYT.

"Outside of Trump's team" could be lots of people from office clerks to political operatives to nitwits like Eric Trump.

[Mrs. Overall]

23. Yeah. You are right.

The source might more likely be from Trump's lawyers or someone connected.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

16. Source not revealed but it says...

From the OP link.....
(snip)
".......questions read by the special counsel investigators to the president’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That document was provided to The Times by a person outside Mr. Trump’s legal team."

This leak could backfire bigly on tRump, IMO.......

Mr. Mueller's team could just change all the damn questions!......

[thegoose]

31. Yeah, it's like tempting a student to steal the questions to the big test

But the teacher planted phonies! Heh heh heh heh...

Hell, that lying POS couldn't even answer these ones even if his lawyers wrote a script for him to read deadpan while snorting loudly.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

34. Does kinda make a farce of the whole idea of interrogation.

I suspect Mr. Mueller will have other plans, and will have the last laugh. Most experts I'm reading are saying Trump would never sit for an interview because he could not escape without lying, therefore incriminating himself....or he would have to plead the 5th. Either way, he looses.

......

[Pluvious]

19. Can you even imagine...

... The effort it will take for the stable genus to focus on reviewing all these questions, and working out all the answers, with no contractions or inconsistency ?

Coaching such an unfocused, distracted and lazy client must be HELL for his legal team.

[Hekate]

20. What did the President know and when did he know it? X 49

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Leak could be from Michael Cohen, striking at tRump after he smeared Cohen in National Enquirer. .nt

[Mrs. Overall]

24. Hmmm, interesting. That could be a possibility.

[mitch96]

27. I think it was just a courtesy , nothing secret

Dowd negotiated with the special counsel to get the questions before going to talk with the Muller inquiry. Not normal but a "courtesy" thru normal channels??? thats what I got out of it. ymmv.
m

[BigmanPigman]

29. Rachel and her guest Chuck Rosenberg

said that it was probably released as a courtesy too.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. Internal evidence inside the questions prove it was not from Mueller's team

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210562910

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. No. Questions were compiled by tRump's team from notes from phone convos w Mueller's team

So they were NOT released by Mueller's team. Discussing the questions with tRump's attorneys was the courtesy.

When tRump's team released them some way or they were leaked from his attorneys or other participants, it was not a "courtesy".

[FailureToCommunicate]

25. Rachel's guests agreed the questions all, or mostly, point to obstruction, by Trump,

even without any questions -in this batch- about Russian/Trump money laundering.

[BobTheSubgenius]

28. I'd be sweating BIG, high-caliber bullets if it was me sitting in that chair,

answering the questions RM has. You can't be absolutely sure what he knows, and every question could be a tripwire to the triggers of a whole field full of Claymores. Every answer could be your undoing.

I have my doubts about the Imbecile-in-Chief fully understands the peril in which he would find himself. It's possible that he believes his own bullshit and really DOES think he's a genius in a stable. Or whatever the hell it is he thinks.

[Yavin4]

30. Forecast for tomorrow: Prepare for a Tweet Storm

Hide your kids from the news.

[BadgerMom]

32. K and R

[Turbineguy]

33. End run.

Firing Mueller or Rosenstein is now moot.

[UpInArms]

35. Moving this back to the top

While we wait .....

[SayItLoud]

37. Rudy G on job one week

brags he's gonna end Mueller Time. He gets overview of questions going to be asked of The F'n MORON and boom, they leak to press.

Next call by Rudy to Mueller....will go unanswered.

[CrispyQ]

38. Questions about three of his tweets.

When you read through the questions & some of the things he's said, what a stupid piece of shit he is. And 63 million people voted for this shithole.

[.99center]

40. Hold up now...

You guys aren't crazy? Mueller's questions are based off of liberal conspiracies!

How's Hannity and Trump's base handeling the news?