Trump says he has not received subpoena from Mueller

President Trump said Wednesday he has not received a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“No,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn when asked if he had received a subpoena from Mueller. The president was departing the White House en route to a campaign rally in Florida.

The specter of a presidential subpoena was revived earlier Wednesday after Politico published a piece from former federal prosecutor and former White House general counsel Nelson Cunningham, who suggested that Mueller has in recent weeks been locked in a battle with the White House over an effort to subpoena the president and get him to appear before a grand jury.

{mosads}One of Trump’s attorneys in the Russia investigation, Jay Sekulow, disputed the assertion to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

“There has been no subpoena issued and there is no litigation,” he said.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow messages re Politico story on possible Mueller secret subpoena, saying, “ The report in Politico is completely false. There has been no subpoena issued and there is no litigation.”

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 31, 2018

Trump’s legal team has insisted it will fight any efforts from the special counsel to subpoena the president as part of his investigation.

Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lead attorney, argued over the summer that Trump would not have to comply with a subpeona, and said he would fight it up to the Supreme Court if necessary. Such a legal battle would be unprecedented.

“He’s the president of the United States. We can assert the same privilege as other presidents have,” Giuliani said in May.

Trump has repeatedly railed against the Mueller investigation, decrying it as a “witch hunt” and alleging that the special counsel’s team is biased against him. He has frequently denied that he colluded with Russia in the 2016 campaign.

The president told Fox News‘s Laura Ingraham on Monday that he will “probably” respond to “some” questions from the special counsel’s office as part of its investigation.

Giuliani said Monday that Trump’s legal team will not share those answers with Mueller until after the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Mueller has thus far obtained guilty pleas from former Trump associates Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Richard Gates and George Papadopoulos and has filed charges against several Russians.