Trump a Russian agent? ‘Never,’ he says

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed once again any suggestion he was working for Russians or was under their influence.

The comments, made outside the snow-covered White House, came even as Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr, is expected to tell lawmakers he will allow special Counsel Robert Mueller to complete his probe into the Russian interference in 2016 elections.

“I never worked for Russia. Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big fat hoax,” he told reporters. Trump said his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin were like the oneon-ones he has had with other world leaders.

A news report over the weekend had said the FBI had launched a probe into Trump in the aftermath of his firing of then director of the agency James Comey. The investigation was to determine if he was working for Russians. Another report had said Trump went into extraordinary extent to conceal details of his meetings with Putin, even from his own senior aides. On Monday, Trump said: “It’s a lot of fake news.”

He called the then-leaders of the FBI who decided to investigate him “known scoundrels, I guess you could say dirty cops.”

Questions about Russian interference in the 2016 elections to help Trump will have dogged his presidency from even before he took office, and his meetings and calls with President Putin have also drawn close scrutiny.

Questions have also been raised about what Barr, the nominee for the post of attorney general, plans to do with Mueller’s probe, having been critical of it in the past, before getting the nomination. Lawmakers have worried he might shut it down, given how his boss, the president, feels about it. Trump has slammed it as a “witch-hunt”.

“On my watch, Bob will be allowed to complete his work,” Barr said in prepared remarks ahead of two days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee that is scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Barr is a former attorney general to President George HW Bush. He will face questions from lawmakers about his views that the Russia probe was “fatally misconceived”.