[Bolduan:] A big development in the Russia investigation. CNN is reporting. after months and months of negotiations, President Trump's legal team is preparing answers to written questions providing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Sources say the questions are focused on, and here's how they describe it, "Matters related to the investigation of possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians seeking to meddle in the 2016 election." Joining me now, CNN legal analyst, Michael Zeldin, former assistant to Robert Mueller at the Justice Department and a former federal prosecutor. Michael, so they're preparing answers to the questions. What exactly does that mean? Are they like sitting down with the president, pencil to paper at this moment?
[Michael Zeldin, Cnn Legal Analyst:] So I think there's a two-step process here. First is, they receive the questions and they, the lawyers, Jane and Marty Raskin, and perhaps Jay Sekulow, are crafting answers based on the documentation that they have already sent to Mueller to make sure that which they sent and the answers to the questions are consistent. Once they have clear answers to the distinct questions, then I think they go to the president, because these are his statements, so he's going to be bound by them. So they'll need to make sure that the president is comfortable with what's being said. Once that's all said and done, they'll send them back to Mueller, and Mueller will review them to determine whether or not there are follow-up questions that need to be asked, new topics that need to be asked, or whether or not he's good with this, and moves on to the next area.
[Bolduan:] I mean, that is actually, I think, an important question. After they send the answers back, what do you think then happens next? I don't know if there's a typical case, but is there a lot of back and forth, or is this the one shot of getting the answers to these questions?
[Zeldin:] We don't know what the terms of the deal that the Raskins and Sekulow struck with Mueller and his team. But in ordinary litigation, you have what they call written interrogatories, these written questions, and there are a first set, a second set, third set. So oftentimes, there's an iterative process in the ordinary course. We just don't know what the deal is. I can't imagine Mueller said, one and done is fine with us. I think he wants to see the answers he gets because he's made a concession to allow the written questions at the outset, instead of requiring or seeking an oral answer to questions.
[Bolduan:] Michael, does this at all indicate where the special counsel is in terms of a timeline of the investigation, nearing the end at all?
[Zeldin:] I think we could probably conclude that going at this point, you know, for the president's questions means he's closer to the end than to the beginning. But he still has a lot of information to take in from the cooperators, Manafort, Gates, Flynn. So he's going to have to measure what he gets from the president and the answers to the written questions against that which he's learned from those witnesses to determine whether he's now able to say, I have a conclusion that I can reach or whether he has to do further investigation. So we don't know, Kate, but, typically, you reserve, toward the end of your special counsel investigation, questions of the president himself.
[Bolduan:] All right. Great to see you, Michael. Thank you.
[Zeldin:] Thank you.
[Bolduan:] Coming up for us, serious allegations being made in one of the most closely watched governor's races in the country right now. Why the Democratic candidate in Georgia wants her opponent to step down from his current job.