Russian story a ‘ phony collusion’: US President

Comey presented ‘ no evidence’: Putin

Donald Trump derided claims of collusion between Moscow and his associates as “phony” Thursday after reports the head of a probe into Russia’s alleged election meddling is investigating him for obstructing justice.

“They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Senior US intelligence officials have agreed to be interviewed by investigators working for Robert Mueller, a respected former FBI chief, according to reports in both The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Mueller’s office has also asked the National Security Agency ( NSA) for documents related to its interactions with the administration as part of the probe into Russian meddling and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials, The New York Times reported.

Mueller has the authority to investigate whether Trump tried to obstruct justice which is a potentially impeachable offense.

Former FBI director James Comey told Congress last week that Trump pressured him to drop an investigation into his former national security advisor, Mike Flynn, who was forced to quit for lying about his links to Moscow.

Comey was later sacked, with Trump acknowledging that the Russian investigation was on his mind when he decided to dismiss him.

“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! # MAGA,” Trump tweeted later Thursday morning. The acronym is a reference to his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.

Comey has presented ‘ no evidence’ to prove that Moscow meddled in the US presidential election, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, adding that Washington had tried to influence Russian elections for years.

Putin was referring to Comey’s testimony to the US Senate’s Intelligence Committee.

“I am not familiar in detail with the testimony given by former FBI director Comey,” Putin said during a question and answer session with citizens. “Again, he gave no evidence of this [ Russian meddling].”

Putin said many heads of state around the world had told him of similar US meddling in their internal affairs. But they would not voice their concerns openly, fearing to “spoil relations” with Washington.