Trump hoped to 'settle' Mueller investigation like a lawsuit: New book

President Donald Trump at one point hoped to reach a resolution with special counsel Robert Mueller like the myriad lawsuits he's been involved with over the years, according to a new book.

According to "Donald Trump v. the United States," by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, the president assured his White House counsel that he could wriggle out of the special counsel probe of his campaign ties to Russia, reported Axios.

"At one point, as the investigation seemed to be intensifying," Schmidt wrote, the president told White House counsel Don McGahn "that there was nothing to worry about because if it was zeroing in on him, he would simply settle with Mueller. He would settle the case, as if he were negotiating terms in a lawsuit."

Schmidt spent hundreds of hours interviewing current and former senior government officials for the book, which is due out Tuesday, and concluded that McGahn was one of Mueller's most important sources in the lengthy investigation.

"Mueller apparently knew a great deal about what had gone on inside the White House as Trump had tried to control, frustrate, and end the Russia investigation," Schmidt wrote. "I thought — but was not entirely sure — that one of the main reasons Mueller knew so much was McGahn."