Donald Trump isn’t under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, a member of the president’s legal team said, despite Trump’s own comments on social media this week that he’s the target of a “witch hunt.”
“The president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction,” attorney Jay Sekulow said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
The conservative lawyer, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, is assisting Trump as Mueller probes into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the potential obstruction of justice by the president in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump on Friday said on Twitter that “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.” It was the first time Trump had publicly acknowledged that he’s under investigation.
Yet Sekulow, on one of four scheduled appearances on Sunday political talk shows, said the president was referring to a news report about an investigation, not an actual probe.
“The tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources purportedly leaking info to the Washington Post,” he said. “He’s not afraid of an investigation because there is no investigation.”
On CBS News' "Face The Nation," the Sekulow said the special council's office hasn't said anything to Trump about his being a target of the probe.
"There's been no noification from the special counsel's office there is an investigation" of him, Sekulow said.
"I can't imagine a scenario in which the president would not be aware of it," he added, calling the idea of him being investigated for doing what was recommended for him to do by the acting attorney general brings up a "serious" constitutional issue with an "easy" answer.
"The president cannot be... ,found liable for engaging in an activity for which he clearly has the power to do under the Constitution."
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