This isn't how any of this works, but if I were Mueller I'd be sorely tempted to accept this offer, as questions on Russia are actually a far bigger Perjury trap for Trump then anything else—and it's these questions on which the future of Trump's presidency will ultimately hinge.
2/ I'll also observe—and I'm fairly certain Mueller and his investigators would agree—that Mueller's team is in far *less* need of Trump's answers on the Obstruction case (which is frankly already quite strong) as compared to the Conspiracy and Aiding and Abetting investigations.
3/ What this offer says to me as a former criminal defense attorney is that Trump has been just candid enough with his attorneys as to Obstruction that they know he's in trouble—but has so roundly lied to them on Russia they actually think he can safely answer questions about it.
4/ I was discussing with another defense attorney tonight the idea that any defense of Trump should focus *exclusively* on political realities—given the impossibility of trying Trump as long as he stays in office. Pretending he can safely answer Russia questions is good politics.
5/ The *mistake* Trump's lawyers are making is not realizing that while they know much of what Mueller has on Obstruction, they've little idea what Flynn, Papadopoulos, and Gates have told Mueller about Russia. Trump will be *decimated* if he submits to questioning on that topic.
6/ For the foregoing reasons—and given that Trump is a pathological liar—no lawyer representing him would assume he'd told them *anything* like the truth, and so would *forbid* him from answering *any* questions from Mueller on *any* topic. Not sure why that's not happening here.
7/ Upshot: this offer is either theater or malpractice. The better guess is always the former, so my prediction that Trump will never voluntarily sit down to answer questions from Robert Mueller remains intact. (Of course, under that view, this theater is a *big* political risk.)
PS/ There's also a *semantic* issue: Team Trump would likely say Trump's knowledge of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting falls under Obstruction, when it's actually part of the Conspiracy/Aiding and Abetting probe. So Trump's lawyers might be playing a shell game with definitions.
