Trump would ‘override’ his legal team and submit to an interview with Robert Mueller if it was ‘fair’

President Donald Trump has said he would “love” to sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, saying he would override his lawyers advice to the contrary if he felt the interview would be fair.

“I would love to speak," Mr Trump told reporters outside Marine One before leaving for Dallas. "Nobody wants to speak more than me – in fact, against my lawyers, because most lawyers say never speak on anything."

He added: “I would love to speak because we’ve done nothing wrong.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been negotiating for an interview with the president for months, as part of his investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mr Trump has said on several occasions that he is willing to speak with Mr Mueller, but his lawyers have encouraged him not to do so.

Mr Trump said on Friday that if he thought the interview would be fair, he would “override” his lawyers and sit down with the special counsel. But he also complained about the investigation as a whole, repeating his claims that it was a “witch hunt” run by his political enemies.

“Why don’t we have Republicans looking also?” he said of the Justice Department probe. “Why aren't we having Republican people doing what all these Democrats are doing?”

Mr Mueller is a Republican who was appointed to his former role as FBI director by President George W Bush. He had his original 10-year term extended by two years under President Barack Obama – a fact Mr Trump noted on Friday, saying: “In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.”

If granted an interview, Mr Mueller plans to ask the president about his ties to Russia, and whether he obstructed an investigation into those same ties, according to a list of questions published by the New York Times this week.