The White House legal team has been preparing President Trump for a possible interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the chance that the two sides reach an agreement in the coming weeks, The Wall Street Journal reports. In a four-hour practice session, though, lawyers were only able to get through two questions with the president due to "the frequent interruptions on national security matters along with Mr. Trump's loquaciousness," the Journal writes. Mueller has more than four dozen questions prepared for Trump.
Trump's legal team has gone back and forth on whether the president should sit for an interview with Mueller: On the one hand, it could help bring to a quick close a probe that has plagued Trump for nearly a year, while on the other Trump could go off topic and potentially get himself into trouble. "Anyone can see [Trump] has great difficulty staying on a subject," said a person familiar with the legal team's dilemma.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is one of Trump's lawyers, told The Wall Street Journal that the legal team plans to decide whether the president should testify by May 17, a year to the day after Mueller's appointment. Trump has expressed an openness to the interview, although he will reportedly follow the advice of his lawyers.