Trump shows frustration at Russia meddling probe
Repeats claims regarding Russia’s purchase of US uranium
WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump fired off a volley of tweets on Sunday and Monday expressing frustration with the Russia investigation, just hours ahead of the first indictment and arrests related to the probe.
He sought to divert attention towards Hillary Clinton by seeking action against her and her campaign over a mix of old and new allegations.
“DO SOMETHING,” the president pleaded in one of them, in capital letters, not clear who with, and accused Democrats of reprising the old charge of “collusion” at a time when Republicans are united, are “fighting back”, and are ready to push for “historic tax cuts and reforms”.
Trump re-litigated old allegations of Russia’s purchase of American uranium deposits during Clinton’s term as secretary of state in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation and the 33,000 deleted emails from her private server that she had used also when in office, as America’s top diplomat.
The president also brought up a recent controversy that Clinton’s campaign had partly financed a DC research firm to dig up dirt on him, and which, had prepared the salacious “Steele Dossier”, named after a former British spy Christopher Steele who put it together, alleging contacts between Trump and Russians.
Trump vented against Robert Mueller, the highly-respected former FBI director — a Republican who was appointed to the post by Republican president George W Bush.
Mueller was named special counsel by the US justice department in May after President Trump fired then FBI director James Comey failing to prevent him from going after Michael Flynn.
Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, was sacked for lying about his conversations with Russian officials.
Mueller’s mandate is to look not only into the Russian meddling and allegations of Trump campaign collusion, but also “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation”.
This has been a matter of serious concern for the White House and the president himself, who have accused the special counsel in what is clearly a preemptive maneuvre of conducting a “witch-hunt”.