President Donald Trump's legal team held talks with the members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team a few days before Christmas, a source briefed on the matter told CNN.
In the discussion, Trump's lawyers were hoping to get a better sense of the next steps in the Mueller inquiry and how much longer the cloud of this investigation will hang over the President.
The precise details of what was discussed couldn't be learned. But the President's lawyers haven't dampened their optimism that Mueller's Russia investigation will come to an end soon, and that there's no danger to the President.
"I know we, collectively, the lawyers, are looking forward to an expeditious wrapping up of this matter," Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the President, told The Wall Street Journal a few days after the discussion with Mueller's team.
The Trump lawyers are no longer putting dates on when they expect the investigation to end, after previously predicting an end by Thanksgiving, then Christmas or the end of the year.
The President himself told The New York Times in an interview published December 28 that he believes Mueller will treat him fairly.
"I think he's going to be fair. And if he's fair -- because everybody knows the answer already," Trump said in the interview, explaining he does not believe there was collusion.
Neither a spokesman for the special counsel or the White House would comment.
CNN reported in December that the discussion was in the works, according to sources familiar with the matter.
While the lawyers have met with Mueller's team before and might again, the sources believed the December check-in would be significant because it came after the completion of interviews of White House personnel requested by the special counsel and after all requested documents have been turned over. Mueller could still request more documents and additional interviews. No request to interview the President or the vice president had yet been made, sources told CNN at the time.
