The White House on Tuesday said it’s “frustrated” with the direction of the Russia probe, claiming the leaked questions special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly prepared for President Trump prove the federal investigation has veered off its intended course.
“The overwhelming majority of those questions don’t focus on the underlying premise of this special counsel,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah told Fox News.
“We have been cooperating as a White House with this probe, but we are a little frustrated that the focus of it is not near what it was created to focus on, which is the collusion question,” he added.
The New York Times published a series of leaked questions on Monday evening that Mueller reportedly submitted to the president’s legal team, many of which touched on events that occurred after the 2016 election, during the transition of power or in the early days of the Trump administration.
[Also read: House Intel releases verdict in Russia probe: No collusion]
The topics mainly focused on the president’s relationships with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, fired FBI Director James Comey, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Some of the questions are linked to whether Trump associates actively coordinated with Russia officials during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump himself blasted the Times’ report in a tweet Tuesday morning, calling it “disgraceful” that the questions appeared in the press.
“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!” he tweeted, later adding that “it would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened!”
Trump has so far declined to sit for an interview with Mueller, though his decision to add former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to his legal team could signal further cooperation with the special counsel’s team.
