President’s tweets try to cast fresh doubt on Mueller’s ‘Witch Hunt’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump tried to cast fresh doubt Monday on the federal investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election, calling it a “fraud and a hoax designed to target Trump” and demanding an immediate end to the “Witch Hunt.”

Trump also said former campaign adviser Carter Page, the subject of government documents released over the weekend, wasn’t a spy or an agent of Russia.

“Carter Page wasn’t a spy, wasn’t an agent of the Russians — he would have cooperated with the FBI. It was a fraud and a hoax designed to target Trump,” the president said in a series of tweets quoting Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Fitton was interviewed Monday on “Fox and Friends,” an appearance Trump tweeted about.

“A disgrace to America,” Trump’s tweet continued. “They should drop the discredited Mueller Witch Hunt now!”

The president was responding to the Justice Department’s Saturday release of documents related to the wiretapping of Page. Trump has asserted without evidence that the documents, heavily redacted and released Saturday under the Freedom of Information Act, “confirm with little doubt” that intelligence agencies misled a special court that approved the wiretap warrant.

But lawmakers from both political parties said the documents don’t show wrongdoing and that they even appear to undermine some previous claims by top Republicans on the basis for obtaining a warrant against Page.

Visible portions of the documents show the FBI telling the court that Page “has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.” The agency also told the court it “believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government.”

Trump’s tweets landed as he continues to try to reassure the country that he accepts that longtime foe Russia interfered in the 2016 election, despite his public undermining of U.S. intelligence agencies in Helsinki while standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election,” Trump tweeted late Sunday. “Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why . ... , and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that Trump was “obviously” referring to allegations of collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian agents.

U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously concurred that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign. Trump only reluctantly accepted their assessment amid the firestorm of last week’s reaction to his summit with Putin.

“Obviously the president is talking about the collusion with his campaign,” Sanders said. “He’s been very clear there wasn’t any. I think he’s said it about 1,000 times.”

In Monday’s tweets, Trump claimed the FBI used political research by British spy Christopher Steele to mislead the court into granting a wiretap order, then classified documents to “cover up misconduct.” The FBI said it suspected Page had been “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.” It told the court that “the FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government.”

Page denies being a foreign agent.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign. Two Trump associates, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to charges they had lied to the FBI about their Russia contacts.

The documents released over the weekend were part of officials’ application for a warrant to the secretive foreign intelligence surveillance court.

“As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of ‘Justice’ and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!” Trump tweeted over the weekend.

While the documents confirm that the FBI relied, in part, on information from Steele to obtain the initial warrant, they also show how the FBI informed the court of his likely motivation.

A page-long footnote in the warrant application lays out the FBI’s assessment of Steele’s history and the likely interest of his backer, adding that despite the political concern, the bureau believed at least some of his report to be “credible.”