Trump: ‘Seems unlikely’ he’d meet with Mueller
WASHINGTON — President Trump said it “seems unlikely” that he’d give an interview in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said yesterday, when asked if he’d provide an interview to Mueller’s team.
“When they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview,” Trump said during a joint news conference with the prime minister of Norway.
The special counsel’s team of investigators has expressed interest in speaking with Trump, but no details have been worked out. Trump’s lawyers have previously stated their determination to cooperate with requests in the probe, which has already resulted in charges against four of Trump’s campaign advisers.
Trump called the investigation a “phony cloud” over his administration.
“It has hurt our government,” he said. “It was a Democrat hoax.”
Trump’s words differed from what he said at a news conference in June, shortly after fired FBI Director James B. Comey had told Congress that Trump asked him for a pledge of loyalty. Trump denied that, and said he’d be “100 percent” willing tell his version of events under oath. He said he’d be “glad to” speak to Mueller about it.
The comments come after Trump had already lashed out at the investigations on Twitter yesterday morning, urging Republicans to take control of the inquiries and repeating his claim that they are on a “witch hunt.”
“There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes,” he tweeted. “Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!”
In a separate tweet yesterday, Trump accused Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of being “underhanded and a disgrace” for disclosing details of a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia during the presidential campaign.
Tuesday, Feinstein, who faces a primary challenge in her re-election bid this year, released the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s closed-door August interview with an official from the political opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the dossier, drawing rebukes from Republicans, including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Feinstein is the top Democrat on the panel.