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Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be furious that his list of 52 questions — specifically intended for President Donald Trump — has been leaked to the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News – but as usual he has been quiet. The cat is out of the bag on this one.

President Trump has labeled the leaks of Mueller’s questions “disgraceful … a set up and trap.”

In the past President Trump has said he would be happy to be interviewed, but now that these questions have been leaked to the media a Trump-Mueller interview under oath appears to have vanished into thin air. The topics of these questions center on the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the firing of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, a 20-minute meeting in Trump Tower in New York City during the campaign between campaign officials and a Russian connected lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from anything under investigation involving the Trump-Clinton presidential campaign of 2016 because he was active in Trump’s campaign.

According to news reports, Mueller is now floating the idea he may issue a subpoena to President Trump in an attempt to drag him in for under oath questioning before a grand jury and provide answers to all these questions that now are in the public domain. This leak of Mueller’s questions is so far beyond the pale that Mueller should just throw in the towel and go back to his retirement as a former FBI director. The substance of these questions has already been answered time and time again, investigated endlessly by mainstream media who will not give up repeating and restating these same questions over and over with commentators chattering on-and-on like Magpies.

The release of Mueller’s questions just adds fuel to the fire for those desiring to remove President Trump by any means possible. For the president to now agree to be interviewed by Mueller would be a colossal mistake. Trump’s legal team should put up as many road blocks as possible to delay and prevent this president from being subjected to a clear “perjury trap.”

Imagine a sitting president being grilled for hours on subjects that have already been concluded. It would take days to interview the president and get his answers to all these questions that certainly would lead to more questions about things that no longer matter. President Trump had every right to fire Comey. Flynn admitted lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence on matters that had nothing to do with Trump’s presidential campaign. The other questions are already under investigation by other agencies such as the U.S. Inspector General’s office and U.S. House and Senate oversight committees.

So what if Mueller subpoenas President Trump? If he does then let this subpoena issue work its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court for a legal showdown involving a sitting president and then see what happens. In order to avoid a subpoena, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was recently added to Trump’s legal defense team and in a recent statement he says the president may submit to a volunteer interview for only “two-to-three hours at most.” This is all a big charade.

Remember back when presidential candidate Clinton was interviewed at the FBI headquarters in Washington in 2016? Clinton was not placed under oath; there are no transcripts or videos of this interview when she was being investigated by the FBI over her controversial e-mail practices and the mishandling of classified information. After this interview Comey declared Clinton would not be charged with any crimes, but apparently he reached this decision long before Clinton’s interview. No wonder Comey got fired. Will President Trump get the Hillary treatment from Mueller?

So who leaked Mueller’s questions to the media? There’s a lot a finger pointing going on in Washington right now, but no one is claiming responsibility. Mueller should be more concerned about this leak – that had to come from someone on his team or Trump’s legal team — than anything President Trump might have to say about old-worn-out accusations that have produced no evidence of any wrong doing on the president’s part after 16 months of investigating. There is no probable cause to support a subpoena. What a can of worms this is becoming.

Here again Washington is leaking like a sieve during a tsunami.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.