It is "disgraceful" that a list of
Russia inquiry questions prepared for the president has been leaked to
US media, US President Donald Trump says.
Special Counsel Robert
Mueller, who is looking into possible Russian meddling in the 2016
election, reportedly gave the list to Mr Trump's legal team. The New York Times says it has obtained the list of more than 40 questions.
Mr Trump appeared to confirm the report on Twitter, repeating his claim that the Russia inquiry is a "witch hunt".
He later tweeted on Tuesday morning: "It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened."
White House spokesman Raj Shah said on Tuesday that the Times report was "troubling".
"The entire premise of this investigation was on this topic of collusion and the overwhelming focus of the questions is not on that topic," he said.
What is Robert Mueller investigating?
The special counsel is looking into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election, whether there was any collusion between the Kremlin and Mr Trump's election campaign and whether the president unlawfully tried to obstruct the inquiry.Mr Mueller was appointed special counsel following Mr Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey last May.
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US media reported that sources familiar with the case said Mr Mueller informed Mr Trump's attorneys in March that he is a subject of the investigations, but not a criminal target.
It remains unclear when Mr Mueller will request a meeting with the president.
Were there any surprising questions?
The list of questions appeared to confirm that John Dowd, the president's former lead lawyer for the Russia investigation resigned in March after he concluded that the president was increasingly ignoring his advice regarding Mr Mueller.Mr Dowd had received information about Mr Mueller's questions from the special counsel's team, and his resignation came about a week and a half later.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr Trump's new lawyer for the investigation, met with Mr Mueller last week, according to the newspaper.
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One of the questions directly refers to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, asking what knowledge Mr Trump may have had about Mr Manafort's outreach to Russia.

