By Shane Croucher
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Updated | Special counsel Robert Mueller told lawyers for President Donald Trump that their client could be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury if he refuses to speak with investigators probing suspicions obstruction of justice and of collusion between Trump's 2016 election campaign and the Russian government.
Citing several sources familiar with the meeting in early March, The Washington Post reported that Trump's lawyers told Mueller the president was not obliged to talk to investigators. Mueller then said Trump could be subpoenaed.
"This isn't some game," John Dowd, the president's then lead lawyer, who resigned later in March, reportedly told Mueller. "You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States."
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A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment. Jay Sekulow, Trump's new lead attorney, did not respond to a request for comment. Sekulow and Dowd declined to comment to the Post.
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Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, said on Twitter he thought the Supreme Court would eventually make Trump testify if he challenged a subpoena.
"The news tonite is that Mueller raised the prospect of issuing a subpoena to force Trump to testify under oath," Tribe tweeted. "If that occurs, I predict Trump wd ask a federal court to quash the subpoena. When the case reaches the SCt, I predict this Court wd rule agnst Trump."
The latest report follows a leak to The New York Times of 49 questions Mueller and his team want Trump to answer as part of their Russia collusion probe.
On that list are the questions "When did you become aware of the Trump Tower meeting?" and "What discussions did you have during the campaign regarding Russian sanctions?"
Trump responded with anger on his Twitter account.
"So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were 'leaked' to the media," Trump wrote.
"No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!"
However, legal analysts and a former assistant to Mueller believe the leak came directly from Trump's lawyers.
"There is no question that these leaks did not come from Mueller's team but did come from Trump's team," Dan Abrams, ABC News chief legal affairs analyst, said on Good Morning America.
"How do we know that? Because in The New York Times article, they make it very clear this came from a list of questions that Mueller's team read to them.
"And so Trump's team created this list that was then leaked by someone outside of Trump's defense team."
Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst and former assistant to Mueller, also said that the list of questions was likely created by Trump's legal team based on notes they took in discussion with Mueller's investigators.
"I think these are notes taken by the recipients of a conversation with Mueller's office where he outlined broad topics, and these guys wrote down questions that they thought these topics may raise," Zeldin said.
This article was updated to include both comments by Laurence Tribe and that the special counsel's office declined to comment.
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