Grammar used in leaked Mueller questions suggests they came from someone close to Trump
President Trump should check his White House for leaks.
A list of questions Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump appears to have come from someone in the President’s orbit.
The President fumed Tuesday about the questions.
“So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were ‘leaked’ to the media,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
He went on to highlight that none of the 49 questions published by the New York Times deals with possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!” he continued.
He instead questioned why the questions focused on whether he tried to hinder an investigation.
“It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!”
Trump has regularly tried to discredit James Comey by saying the fired FBI boss leaked classified information, although the longtime lawman said that wasn’t the case.
The Times noted the questions were read to Trump’s attorneys for the probe and released by someone outside of his legal team.
Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor, opined the leak likely didn’t come from the typically tight-lipped Mueller’s team.
“Some of the grammar is not even proper,” he said Tuesday morning on CNN. “So I don't see this as a list of written questions that Mueller's office gave to the President. I think these are more notes that the White House has taken and then they have expanded upon the conversation to write out these as questions.”
Michael Schmidt, the New York Times reporter who obtained the list, appeared to confirm the outline was originally compiled by Trump’s team.
“They wrote down all these things,” he said Monday night on MSNBC.
He added they were recorded about two weeks before lead Trump attorney John Dowd abruptly left the White House, reportedly furious the President would heed his advice not to sit down with Mueller’s team.
A White House spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institute and ex-Obama ethics chief, speculated the questions were released because someone close to Trump needs “help in persuading Trump NOT to talk to Mueller, and are counting on the outcry.”
“They may be afraid to oppose on own since Trump wants 2talk,” tweeted Eisen.
