President Trump said he “would like to” testify before Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose team is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
“Yes. I would like to,” the president told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
The president’s statement comes just after his top lawyer, John Dowd, quit Thursday morning. Dowd and other lawyers on Trump’s team have advised the president from the start not to sit for an interview with Mueller’s investigators. His departure reportedly came amid concerns that Trump was ignoring his advice, and followed Trump’s addition of former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova to the legal team.
DiGenova has made headlines for his vigorous defenses of the president on cable news networks. Appearing on Fox News in January, he accused the DOJ and FBI of “a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.”
Over the weekend, the Trump administration directly attacked Mueller for the first time, with Dowd calling for an end to the Russia investigation and the president blasting the special counsel’s team on Twitter.
Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018
Most members of Congress think Mueller should be allowed to continue the Russia probe, but several have called for his firing, including Representative Louie Gohmert (R., Texas). Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said earlier this week that sacking the special counsel would be the “beginning of the end” of Trump’s presidency, and stressed that Mueller must be allowed to do his job without interference.