WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Wednesday he “would love to” be questioned under oath by Russia collusion prosecutor Robert Mueller, adding it could happen in the coming weeks.
Trump confirmed that his lawyers are in discussion with Mueller, who is leading the investigation into collusion between the US president’s election campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, and also into allegations that Trump tried to obstruct his probe.
“I would love to do it,” Trump told reporters in the White House when asked about testifying.
“I would like to do it as soon as possible... subject to my lawyers and all of that.”
“I would do it under oath, absolutely,” he added.
Asked when an interview could happen, Trump replied that he didn’t know exactly.
“Yesterday, they were talking about two or three weeks,” he said.
It was the first time the Trump said directly that he president would cooperate with Mueller, whose investigation he has repeatedly dismissed as being based on “fake news.”
“There has been no collusion whatsoever. There is no obstruction whatsoever,” he said Wednesday.
But any interview of a US president in an investigation is fraught with issues of executive privilege — how much and in what context the US leader can be forced to disclose information.
In Trump’s case, it also raises deep concerns that his shoot-from-the-hip outspokenness could jeopardize his own legal position.
Special counsel Mueller is believed to be focusing on whether Trump illegally interfered with the Russia investigation, particularly when he fired FBI director James Comey last year.
Mueller, himself a former FBI director, is also examining the extent of communications between Russians and Trump campaign officials, including a meeting in June 2016 between Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer who had allegedly offered them dirt on Trump’s election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
He has already issued indictments for four people from the campaign, securing guilty pleas from two: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, both for making false statements.
Mueller’s investigators have been edging steadily closer to the White House, last week interviewing Attorney General Jeff Sessions — who was a top Trump campaign official and had three meetings in 2016 with Russia’s US ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.
He has interviewed Comey and other former officials, and is reportedly going to interview former White House Strategist Steve Bannon in the coming days.
Ty Cobb, one of Trump’s lawyers, has repeatedly said since last year that the president is willing to testify to Mueller’s investigation, and wants Mueller to wind up the case as early as possible.
Trump “wants to put the matter to rest,” Cobb told CBS News last week.
The form of an Mueller interview with the president still needs to be negotiated — whether it is face-to-face, or in writing, or a mix.
Trump told reporters Wednesday he would listen to his lawyers’ advice on how to proceed. Asked if he thought Mueller would be fair, he replied:
“We are going to find out... I hope so.”
But the case might not be cleared easily. Trump’s repeated tweets attacking Comey and the FBI have added to suspicions that he has sought to stymie the Mueller investigation.
On Tuesday the Washington Post reported that last year Trump pressed Comey’s temporary replacement, FBI deputy director and Comey loyalist Andrew McCabe, to tell him who he voted for in the 2016 election.
Since then Trump has pressured the current FBI chief, Christopher Wray, to fire McCabe.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders dismissed Wednesday the Post report on the Trump-McCabe exchange by saying she doubts “any person in America” cares about it.
That sparked a mass rebuttal on Twitter by Trump critics declaring they do care, using the hashtag “#onewhodoes.
Trump willing to be questioned ‘under oath’ in Russia probe
Trump willing to be questioned ‘under oath’ in Russia probe
Airlines hike ticket prices as war against Iran propels fuel costs
- Conflict deals double blow to Indian airlines already hit by Pakistan airspace ban
CANBERRA, NEW DELHI: Australia’s Qantas Airways, Scandinavia’s SAS and Air New Zealand announced airfare hikes on Tuesday, blaming an abrupt spike in the cost of fuel caused by the Middle East conflict.
Jet fuel prices, which were around $85 to $90 per barrel before US-Israeli strikes on Iran, have soared to between $150 and $200 per barrel in recent days, New Zealand’s flag carrier said as it suspended its financial outlook for 2026 due to uncertainty over the conflict. The war, which disrupted shipping via the world’s most vital oil export route, has sent oil prices surging, upending global travel, pushing airline tickets on some routes sky-high, and sparking fears of a deep travel slump that could lead to widespread grounding of planes.
FASTFACT
Flight disruptions due to the Middle East conflict add to problems at IndiGo whose CEO Pieter Elbers stepped down on Tuesday.
“Increases of this magnitude make it necessary to react in order to maintain stable and reliable operations,” an SAS spokesperson said in a statement, adding it had implemented a “temporary price adjustment.”
The largest Scandinavian airline said last year it had temporarily adjusted its fuel hedging policy due to uncertain market conditions and that it had no fuel consumption hedged for the following 12 months. Several Asian and European airlines, including Lufthansa and Ryanair, have oil hedging in place, securing a part of their fuel supplies at fixed prices. Finnair, which had hedged over 80 percent of its first quarter fuel purchases, warned, however, that even the availability of fuel could be at risk if the conflict dragged on.
Qantas said in addition to increasing international fares, it was exploring redeploying capacity to Europe as airlines and passengers seek to evade disruptions in the Middle East
Airspace restrictions in the Middle East have dealt another blow to Indian airlines, which count the region as a corridor for flights to Europe and the US since Pakistan banned Indian carriers from its airspace last year.
As war in the Middle East forces flight rescheduling and re-routing, Indian airlines have limited options because they can’t fly over Pakistan either.
The country’s biggest international carriers Air India and IndiGo did not operate 64 percent of their 1,230 scheduled flights to the Middle East, Europe and North America in the last 10 days, Cirium data shows.
“It is a double whammy for Indian airlines which fly international routes,” said Amit Mittal, an independent aviation expert.
Pakistan has banned Indian carriers from its airspace since last April following military tensions between the two neighbors.
