WASHINGTON DC — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has completed all interviews it has requested with White House staffers to date, White House special counsel Ty Cobb tells CNN.
“The White House interviews are completed,” Cobb told CNN by phone on Tuesday, referring to all interviews that Mueller’s team has requested with White House staff. “We remain hopeful for an appropriate and prompt conclusion.”
Cobb acknowledged that additional interviews could be scheduled, but said he expects the portion of Mueller’s investigation that is focused on the White House to be completed early next year.
Cobb declined to say whether President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence has been interviewed by the special counsel, but a White House official familiar with the matter told CNN that Mueller’s office has not requested interviews.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
“It’s much closer to the finish line than people realize,” Cobb said. “We’re basically done here at the White House.”
Cobb has previously signaled the investigation would wrap up by Thanksgiving, then the end of the year, but he remains insistent despite his shifting timeline that the probe is coming to a close and not ramping up, as some outside observers have suggested.
It was not immediately clear when the last interview took place, but CNN has reported that Mueller’s interviews with White House staff were ongoing past Thanksgiving — when Cobb initially said he believed the interviews would be concluded. The New York Times reported that White House communications director Hope Hicks completed her interviews with Mueller’s team last Thursday and Friday.
CNN has reported that several White House officials were scheduled to meet with Mueller, including senior adviser Jared Kushner, White House counsel Don McGahn, Hicks, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg. Mueller also interviewed several former Trump White House staffers, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former press secretary Sean Spicer.
