Robert Mueller Hints Probe Could End September 1 Pending Donald Trump’s Cooperation
Rudy Giuliani told media outlets Sunday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller might wrap up his Russian investigation as early as September 1 if President Trump will agree to an interview by mid-July.
Giuliani, who is serving on Trump’s legal team, told CNN that the FBI had plans to end their probe into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election by that date if Trump would make himself available for questioning. According to Giuliani, he and Mueller discussed an end-date to the investigation nearly a month ago after Mueller and his team came to the attorney with questions on whether or not Trump would sit down and answer some questions about his campaign’s possible collusion with Russian agents during the election. Giuliani reportedly told Mueller that any interviews with Trump would be contingent on having a set end-date for the probe.
Trump’s team is hoping to have the Russian investigation closed before the November mid-terms this year as plenty of Republican seats seem to be in danger after the bad press the president has been having recently with news involving pay-outs to both his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Of course, Giuliani gave even more stipulations should an interview between Trump and Mueller occur. For Trump to sit down with the FBI, his team is demanding to have access to an FBI informant who made contact with members of Trump’s campaign team during the election.
Trump has insisted the informant was a spy planted within his team to derail his campaign, going so far as to demand his Justice Department look into the situation for any evidence of wrongdoing by government officials looking to block his nomination. Mueller hasn’t commented on whether he plans to wrap up his investigation by September, though, even if Trump agreed to a sit-down and the FBI could end their probe into the Trump campaign’s involvement with Russia, Mueller’s full investigation into Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential race still wouldn’t be done.
Whether Trump agreeing to meet with the FBI will speed up the investigation remains to be seen. Giuliani shared with CNN on Friday that Mueller had agreed to cut down his questions for Trump in order to get an interview with the president before making a controversial claim that the president would be well within his rights to “obstruct justice,” a comment that doesn’t bode well for his cooperation with Mueller’s probe.
