Let public see report, Trump urges
At same time, he voices criticism of Mueller’s inquiry
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he thinks special counsel Robert Mueller’s report should be released to the public, even as he disparaged its very existence as “ridiculous.”
“Let it come out; let people see it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Ohio. “Let’s see whether or not it’s legit.”
Mueller is expected to present a report to the Justice Department outlining the findings of his nearly two-year investigation into Russian election meddling.
Mueller is required to produce a confidential report that at a minimum explains decisions about who was and was not prosecuted. Attorney General William Barr is then expected to produce his own report for Congress. He has said he wants to make public as much of Mueller’s findings as he can under the law.
Trump said he was personally looking forward to reading the findings, even as he scorned the fact that Mueller was empowered to write the report in the first place.
“I just won one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. … And now I have somebody writing a report that never got a vote?” Trump said. “It’s called the Mueller report. So explain that because my voters don’t get it. And I don’t get it.”
Trump went on to say that “it’s sort of interesting that a man out of the blue just writes a report.”
The House voted unanimously last week in support of a resolution calling for any report in Mueller’s investigation to be made public. It was a symbolic action designed to pressure Barr into releasing as much information as possible.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Trump ally, blocked his chamber from taking up the resolution.
He said on Twitter that he would agree to the resolution only if it’s amended to call for the appointment of special counsels to investigate the FBI’s handling of its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and the “abuse of the FISA warrant process” against a one-time Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, who was investigated over his ties to the Russian government.
Trump on Wednesday called Mueller “conflicted” and criticizing the lawyers who have worked on the case.
The president claimed that Mueller’s “best friend is Comey, who’s a bad cop,” referring to James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director.
Comey’s firing in 2017 is among the actions being examined by Mueller’s team as it probes whether Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Though Mueller’s office has said nothing publicly about the timing of a report, several prosecutors detailed to Mueller’s team have left in recent months.
Trump, for his part, said he had no idea when the report would be released, but he maintained his innocence, saying there was “no collusion” and “no obstruction. There was no nothing.”
“With all of that being said,” he added, “I look forward to seeing the report.”