New York Daily News

Mueller and Comey sittin’ in a tree...

- BY CHRIS SOMMERFELD­T

Special counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey are very close and President Trump says he has the photos to prove it.

The President on Tuesday told right-wing outlet The Daily Caller that he has “100 pictures” of the former G-men “hugging and kissing each other,” insisting their close relationsh­ip paved way for the “illegal” investigat­ion into his campaign’s ties to Russia.

Trump made the bizarre assertion during a wide-ranging Oval Office interview with the conservati­ve website, which released a full transcript of the conversati­on Wednesday.

“He’s Comey’s best friend,” Trump said of Mueller, who’s investigat­ing possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. “And I could give you 100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other.”

It’s not clear how Trump got the photos or what he does with them. A White House spokeswoma­n did not return a request for comment.

“We’ll decline to comment,” special counsel spokesman Peter Carr told the Daily News.

Mueller was appointed special counsel after Trump fired Comey in May 2017. In addition to possible collusion, Mueller is looking into whether Comey’s firing could have constitute­d obstructio­n of justice on the President’s part because the FBI was already investigat­ing his campaign.

Following the “kissing” comments, the President went off on a familiar diatribe about the supposed illegitima­cy of Mueller’s investigat­ion, which has already resulted in nearly 40 indictment­s against Trump associates and Russians.

“You know I call them ‘the 17 angry Democrats,’” Trump said of the special counsel team, ignoring the fact that Mueller is a longtime Republican. “Honestly, people are very angry about it. People that love our country are very angry about it. So I consider it to be an illegal investigat­ion. It should’ve never been allowed to have happened.”

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