Trump lashes Mueller over exoneration issue
President sends mixed message on election help
President Donald Trump assailed special counsel Robert Mueller’s motives after Mueller bluntly rebuffed Trump’s claims about interference.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump angrily assailed special counsel Robert Mueller’s motives on Thursday, a day after Mueller bluntly rebuffed Trump’s repeated claims that the Russia investigation had cleared him of committing a federal crime of obstruction of justice.
The president also offered mixed messages on Russia’s efforts to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign. First Trump tweeted that he had “nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected.” That was the first time he seemed to acknowledge that Russia worked to see him elected – something that was underscored in Mueller’s report.
Then on the White House South Lawn, Trump told reporters: “Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all.”
Trump insisted that he’s been tough on Russia and that Moscow would have preferred Clinton as president. That’s not what Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. When asked last year in Helsinki whether he wanted Trump to become president, Putin replied: “Yes I did.”
Trump’s 20-minute eruption came the day after Mueller pointedly rejected his claims – repeated nearly every day – that the special counsel’s two-year fedsomebody eral investigation exonerated him of criminal activity and was merely a
“witch hunt.”
Mueller said Wednesday that charging Trump with any crime in court was “not an option” because of federal rules, but he used his first public remarks on the Russia investigation to emphasize that he did not exonerate the president.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller declared.
Trump called Mueller “conflicted.” He said, apparently falsely, that Mueller, who served as FBI director under President George W. Bush, wanted his old job back, but that he had told him no.
“Robert Mueller should have never been chosen,” Trump said. “I think Mueller is a true never Trumper. He’s who didn’t get a job that he wanted very badly.”
Trump also said Mueller, who is a Republican, should have investigated law enforcement officials who the president claims tried to undermine him.
He rattled off a series of names of people that he thought Mueller should have been investigating.
Trump mentioned Peter Strzok, a former FBI agent who helped lead the investigation and exchanged antiTrump text messages during the 2016 election with ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
Trump, asked about impeachment by Congress, called it a “dirty word” and said he couldn’t imagine the courts allowing him to be impeached. “I don’t think so because there’s no crime,” he said.