Trump, his team will use report as weapon
WASHINGTON — For President Donald Trump, the fight over the “witch hunt” is only just beginning.
Now that special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into Trump’s campaign is over, it’s being
transformed into a rallying cry and a weapon for the president’s re-election campaign.
The pall of the two-year probe lifted Sunday, when Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller’s findings that said the wide-ranging investigation found no evidence of collusion by Trump’s 2016 campaign with the Russian government. Barr’s four-page letter was immediately seized upon by the Republican president and his allies as a weapon to use against Democrats, the so-called Deep State and the media.
“There are a lot of people out there that have done some very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things against our country,” Trump said Monday as he sat in the Oval Office next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Those people will certainly be looked at.
“I’ve been looking at them for a long time,” he added, “and I’m saying why haven’t they been looked at? They lied to Congress, many of them, you know who they are.”
Even before Mueller’s conclusions were revealed, it was clear that Trump saw the end of the investigation as a political opportunity.
As the president’s lawyers debated legal strategy, Trump aides and political allies developed a plan to turn the end of the probe into the launching pad for a new round of attacks on the president’s foes and a moment to reinvigorate his supporters in the run-up to the 2020 campaign. Trump surrogates rushed to take a victory lap, depict the probe as a failed coup and rub the results in the face of Democrats, many of whom had spent months promising that Mueller would turn up more.
“You’ve made a great victim of Donald Trump here,” Trump counsellor Kellyanne Conway said Monday morning.
Trump’s campaign moved quickly to raise money off the Mueller news, with a text message to supporters stating “Dems raised millions off a lie. Now we FIGHT BACK!”
The team’s plans going forward are more expansive, according to seven aides and allies involved with the effort, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
While Trump’s base has long been suspicious of Mueller, the president’s team believes independents and moderate Democrats who backed him in the last election but have since soured may return to the fold if convinced he was unfairly targeted.
Major talking points for Democrats who had pinned great hopes on Mueller may have vanished. And some swing voters, wary at the prospect of endless investigations and talk of impeachment, may prove more sympathetic to the president.
The president and his allies will now link the report with the investigations launched by House Democrats and try to make the case that, in the wake of Mueller’s findings, further probes are partisan overreach.
“I think they can’t move forward until they apologize,” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the AP.
He singled out Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and said the congressman’s investigation would have no credibility because he had deemed Trump “treasonous” and promised clear evidence of collusion that didn’t materialize.
“If there are people who contrived this investigation, who made up this collusion, maybe they themselves should be investigated,” Giuliani said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., echoed that sentiment, making clear that Republicans weren’t ready to move on from the investigations, firing a warning shot to Hillary Clinton and Justice Department officials that “to those who were abusive of the process in 2016 on the other side, you haven’t had much scrutiny, but that’s coming.”
Trump’s campaign on Monday afternoon released a memo from communications director Tim Murtaugh warning television producers against booking Democrats who had claimed on their networks that there had been evidence of collusion with Russia.
“At this point, there must be introspection from the media who facilitated the reckless statements and a serious evaluation of how such guests are considered and handled in the future,” Murtaugh wrote.
Democrats have pointed out that Mueller found evidence for and against obstruction and have demanded to see his full report.
Trump indicated that he would support releasing the full report by Mueller.
“Up to the attorney general,” he said. “Wouldn’t bother me at all.”
Asked at an earlier appearance with Netanyahu on Monday whether Mueller had acted honorably, Trump said, “Yes, he did. Yes, he did.”
The president’s allies also intend to use the moment to heighten attacks on the media, which many Trump supporters believe unjustly fanned the flames of the special counsel’s probe in an effort to bring down the president. They aim to highlight specific news organizations and, in some cases, individual reporters and paint them as biased and untrustworthy, according to two presidential confidants.
A full-throated attack on the investigation also will be the centerpiece of Trump campaign events, including rallies, Trump advisers have said.
Trump’s next rally is set for Thursday in Michigan.
Meanwhile, Mueller’s decision to punt to Barr the question of whether there was any Trump team obstruction puzzled some former Justice Department officials, who say prosecutors at Mueller’s level typically make their own charging recommendations.
By not acting, Mueller left the politically charged obstruction question in the hands of a Trump appointee who even before he took office expressed skepticism about whether the president’s actions constituted a crime. On Sunday, Barr said there was insufficient evidence Trump obstructed justice by trying to interfere with Mueller’s probe.
“I find this to be very unusual that there was this question left open and presented by the special counsel,” said Tim Purdon, the former United States attorney for North Dakota during the Obama administration. “As U.S. attorney, usually you have the last say. You’re the decider, you decide what to do.
“But of course,” Purdon added, “these are unusual circumstances.”