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Giuliani: Trump won't give Mueller any more written answers

The president's lawyer said Thursday that his client is "not answering any more questions from these people."
Rudy Giuliani speaks with reporters at the White House
Rudy Giuliani speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington on May 30, 2018.Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani,said Thursday that the president and his legal team will not be providing special counsel Robert Mueller with any additional written answers.

The presidentis "not answering any more questions from these people," Giuliani told The Hill.

"I think I announced about 10 days ago 'over my dead body,' and I'm not dead yet,” Giuliani said, referring to a remark he made to "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace this month.

That comment was made in response to a question Wallace asked about whether Trump would sit with Mueller for an in-person interview. Mueller is tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Days later, Giuliani told Axios that Trump's legal team "might agree" to providing Mueller with additional written responses to potential follow-up questions.

Asked by NBC News to clarify whether he was referring in the Hill interview to no chance Trump would sit for an interview or would not answer more written questions, Giuliani responded that he did not "anticipate" any additional written answers by the president.

But speaking with The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Giuliani said negotiations with Mueller's team over an in-person interview are "still open." The Daily Beast published its story Thursday afternoon.

In November, Trump's legal team submitted written answers to Mueller's questions that tied into Russian electoral interference.

The submission followed months of back-and-forth between Trump's attorneys and Mueller's team about just what exactly the president would respond to and how he would provide those responses. It is not known whether the special counsel's office has requested that Trump respond to additional questions.

NBC News has reported that Mueller may submit a report on his investigation to the attorney general as early as February.

In August, Trump's lawyers were already preparing a memo opposing a potential subpoena from Mueller to provide an in-person interview. If Mueller were to file that subpoena, only to be met with resistance from Trump's side, such a battle could set off a monumental legal fight in federal court, possibly going all the way to the Supreme Court.