TRUMP DENOUNCES RUSSIAN PROBE
President thinks it is motivated
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday angrily denounced the federal probe of Russia’s 2016 election meddling as “Mccarthyism at its WORST!” insisting he had authorised his White House counsel to testify to bring the matter to a close.
Trump said he had authorised Don Mcgahn and other staffers to “fully cooperate” with the investigation into alleged collusion between his campaign and joscow.
“I allowed White House Counsel Don jcgahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel,” Trump tweeted.
“In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. jost transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!”
Trump’s Twitter storm was set off by a front-page report in the New York Times that said jcgahn had provided Special Counsel Robert Mueller with an unusually detailed account of Trump’s thinking during key episodes under investigation.
Trump -- who had already addressed the issue late Saturday -- stepped up his attacks on the story and the probe in a series of angry morning tweets, slamming The New York Times for implying that Mcgahn had turned on him.
“I have nothing to hide and have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close.
“So many lives have been ruined over nothing - Mccarthyism at its WORST!”
jueller is investigating whether the president sought to obstruct justice as well as whether his campaign colluded with Russia’s covert effort to sway the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favour.
In more than 30 hours of testimony over the past nine months, the Times said jcgahn laid out for investigators Trump’s fury over the probe and the ways in which he asked Mcgahn to respond to it.
Among the episodes he testified to were Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey, and his obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the probe, according to the Times.
It noted that Mcgahn played a key role in stopping Trump from firing jueller, who was made special counsel after Comey’s firing.
Trump called the story a Fake piece and seemed particularly incensed at the suggestion that jcgahn was a “RAT” like John Dean, the former White House counsel who testified against president Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
He ultimately cooperated with prosecutors and helped bring down the Nixon presidency, though he served a prison term for obstruction of justice.
The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel xsic] had TURNBD on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite - & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!”
“Study the late Joseph Mccarthy, because we are now in period with jueller and his gang that make Joseph Mccarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!”
Trump views probe as a stain on his presidency, and has repeatedly pushed for it to be ended.