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Trump's attorney doesn't want Trump's 'confidential' written responses to Mueller released

Posted at 5:25 AM, Mar 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-25 08:25:52-04

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Donald Trump, said Monday he does not want the written answers the President submitted to special counsel Robert Mueller to be released, describing them as "confidential."

"Well, that would not be a position that I would want, to just make a statement where we would release confidential communications that took place between the President of the United States and the Department of Justice or the special counsel's office," Sekulow told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day."

Sekulow continued, "as a lawyer, you don't waive privileges and you don't waive investigative detail absent either a court order or an agreement between the parties. And you'd have to weigh a lot of factors there on how that affects other presidencies."

Sekulow called such a move "very inappropriate," and added that it'll "be a decision (Attorney General William Barr) makes, but I've some strong opinions about that."

On Sunday, Barr delivered a summary to Congress detailing the principal conclusions of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

For months, Mueller's team had requested a sit-down interview with Trump, but the President's lawyers refused to commit and negotiations continued. Eventually, the special counsel submitted written questions to the President last fall concerning the time frame before the 2016 election, which Trump answered in late November.

Barr's letter to Congress stated that Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election and said that based on the report, Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined there was not enough evidence to prosecute the President for obstruction of justice.