Trump suspects meddling
Dems, Mueller team accused of plans to tamper in midterms
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused prosecutors working on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election of planning to meddle in this year’s midterm elections, escalating his attack on the probe while offering no evidence to back up his assertion.
In several morning tweets, Trump attempted to cast himself as the victim of a partisan assault, part of a pattern of political deflection in recent days where the president has made false or exaggerated statements in defending his policies or attacking his perceived enemies.
Over the weekend, Trump blamed Democrats for his policy of separating migrant families at the border, falsely said that the New York Times made up a source for a story on negotiations between the United States and North Korea, and continued to claim that the FBI’s use of a source to interact with members of his 2016 election team was an attempt to spy on the campaign.
Trump’s unsupported assertion that prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller will impact the midterm elections to help Democrats was his latest effort to discredit the investigation, which is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.
Republicans risk losing control of the House and possibly the Senate in this year’s midterms as Democrats continue to feel emboldened by Trump’s unpopularity.
“The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the midterm elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls,” Trump wrote on Twitter, adding: “There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!”
The probe, which recently marked its first anniversary, is headed by Mueller, a longtime Republican, and overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Republican and a Trump appointee. But publicly available voter-registration information shows that 13 members of the 17 members of Mueller’s team have previously registered as Democrats, while four had no affiliation or their affiliation could not be found. Justice Department policies prohibit discrimination in hiring for career positions on the basis of politics.
In a second tweet Tuesday, Trump said the special counsel’s team should instead be investigating the campaign of his Democratic opponent in the 2016 election, whom he described as “totally Crooked Hillary Clinton.”
“Why aren’t the 13 Angry and heavily conflicted Democrats investigating the totally Crooked Campaign of totally Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump wrote. “It’s a Rigged Witch Hunt, that’s why! Ask them if they enjoyed her after election celebration!”
During his campaign against Clinton, Trump claimed that she should have been prosecuted harshly for lax security in her government email practices when she was secretary of state. His campaign rallies frequently began with chants of “lock her up.”
Trump is now claiming that the FBI went easy on Clinton and that some people involved in making that decision are working against him in the Mueller probe.
In another tweet Tuesday, Trump suggested that the Russia probe was taking away some of his focus on other issues confronting the country, including trade deals and the effort to denuclearize North Korea.
Trump has at some point attacked each person or organization on his slashmarked list. In the case of the FBI and Justice Department, that has meant assailing the credibility of elements of the federal government that are part of the Mueller effort.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said they have high confidence that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election to hurt Clinton.
Russia has denied it interfered in the election.