Robert Mueller agrees to ‘narrow scope’ for potential Trump interview, says Rudy Giuliani

The Mueller investigation is just over a year old

Mr Trump has yet to agree to an interview with Mr Mueller, but talks are ongoing (Getty)

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani says that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office — which is investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and any possible ties between that effort and the Trump campaign — has agreed to a a narrow scope of topics for a potential interview with the commander in chief.

Mr Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, said that Mr Mueller’s team has agreed to limiting the interview to just two topics, after initially asking to discuss five.

The comment was made during an appearance on CNN Friday morning, in which Mr Giuliani refused to go into detail but said that “the main focus we want is Russia”.

Mr Giuliani has been making headlines since joining the president’s legal team earlier this month. Soon after joining the team, Mr Giuliani disclosed that the president had reimbursed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, which Mr Trump had indicated previously he did not know about at the time.

The Friday comments followed a day after Mr Giuliani indicated that Mr Trump’s legal team has begun planning for the possible interview with Mr Mueller’s team. He said that they are going to hold a series of prep sessions this summer for Mr Trump, and that they will be held during off-hours at the White house. Some of the prep sessions may be held over rounds of golf at Mr Trump’s private courses, he said.

“You can’t take a president away to Camp David and just prepare him for two or three weeks,” Mr Giuliani said then.

“I think of it as the way we prepared him for debates,” Mr Giuliani added. “He never liked to be sitting down for long stretches. We’d do an hour here, two hours there. We’d end up doing 15, 16 hours of preparing, particularly for the first debate. But we’d do it here and there. We have to do it over the course of two or three weeks. Maybe at nights, maybe in the morning.”

Mr Mueller’s investigation is just over a year old, and has led to over a dozen indictments, including charges against at least four associates of Mr Trump.

Those indictments have been levied against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manfort — who has pleaded not guilty — as well as against former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, former camp foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Gates, Mr Papadopoulos, and Mr Flynn have all pleaded guilty to various charges, and are thought to be cooperating with Mr Mueller’s federal investigation.

Mr Trump, who has repeatedly called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” tweeted Thursday to mockingly congratulate the United States for the anniversary.

“Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History… And there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction,” Mr Trump tweeted.

Mr Trump has expressed a willingness to speak with Mr Mueller’s team before, however it continues to be unclear under what conditions he would agree to do so.