President Donald Trump committed Wednesday to testifying under oath before special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“I’m looking forward to it actually,” Trump told reporters in the West Wing of the White House shortly before departing for Davos. “There has been no collusion whatsoever, there has been no obstruction whatsoever.”
The remark represents Trump’s first explicit commitment to testify before Mueller, though he did stipulate any decision would be “subject” to review by his legal team. Trump previously responded “we’ll see,” when asked if he would testify during a news conference in early January.
The president reserved judgement Wednesday when asked if he would receive fair treatment from Mueller.
“We’re going to find out,” Trump, who estimated he’d be interviewed within three weeks, told reporters.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb was reportedly surprised by Trump’s impromptu statement.
“While Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly before departing for Davos, he emphasized that he remains committed to continued complete cooperation with [the special counsel’s office] and was looking forward to speaking with Mr. Mueller,” Cobb told The Wall Street Journal.
He added that preconditions for Trump’s testimony “were being worked out between Mr. Mueller’s team and the President’s personal lawyers.”
Trump’s legal team is still debating whether Trump should testify and in what format, a source familiar with the matter told WSJ. One option under consideration is a combination of in-person and written testimony.
Mueller is reportedly planning to press Trump on his firing of former FBI Director James Comey to determine whether the circumstances of his dismissal constitute obstruction of justice on the part of Trump.
Comey told Congress during his June testimony that Trump asked him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump later conceded, during an interview with NBC, that he fired Comey partly due to his refusal to publicly confirm that Trump wasn’t being personally investigated for collusion.
Trump will also likely be asked about his dismissal of Flynn, which occurred 10 days into his administration, after the public learned Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his contact with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his relationship with Kislyak.
WATCH:
Stressing that he would take an oath before testifying in front of the special counsel, Trump noted that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was never interviewed under oath during the FBI probe into her mishandling of classified information.
In predictable fashion, Trump deflected questions about the Russia investigation by citing recent reports of “missing” text messages exchanged between partisan FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
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