President says Mueller team ‘absolutely nuts’
Sen. Flake insists on bill to protect Russia inquiry
WASHINGTON – Criticized for picking an acting attorney general who has a history of speaking out against Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, President Donald Trump launched another attack Thursday against the special counsel.
Claiming that “the inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,” Trump tweeted that investigators “have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.”
Trump did not detail his complaints, though he described Mueller’s team as “a disgrace to our Nation.”
Lawmakers criticized Trump for appointing aide Matt Whitaker as acting attorney general to replace dismissed Jeff Sessions, a move they said was designed to impede the Russia investigation.
Sessions had recused himself from the Mueller investigation. Whitaker is in a position to supervise an inquiry he has repeatedly criticized in interviews over the past year and a half. Whitaker suggested the Mueller investigation could be stopped by defunding it.
Lawmakers called on him to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation as Sessions did.
The Justice Department insisted Wednesday that Trump has the authority to appoint Whitaker in an acting capacity.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who backs legislation that would protect Mueller’s job, said he would work to block Trump judicial nominees until the Senate takes up the proposal.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Mueller legislation is not necessary because Trump won’t try to shut down the Russia investigation.
The special counsel’s office is investigating Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic Party officials and pushing fake news about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Investigators are looking at whether there were any links between the Russians and the Trump campaign and whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.
Trump again denied collusion or obstruction. “These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years,” he tweeted. “They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!”
Mueller is a Republican whom President George W. Bush appointed as FBI director in 2001. Obama recommended an extension of Mueller’s term, and the Senate concurred by a vote of 100-0.
Trump lashed out hours after Vice President Mike Pence lodged a complaint with Russian President Vladimir Putin about election meddling.
Pence’s office put out a statement that the vice president met with Putin at an economic summit in Singapore and “discussed the upcoming G-20 Summit and touched on the issues that will be discussed when President Trump and President Putin are both in Argentina for the summit.”
Trump spoke only briefly with Putin when the two were in Paris last weekend and plans a more extensive conversation during the G-20 summit Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires.
In Singapore, Putin said he and Pence discussed Trump’s plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces arms treaty with Russia, a move the Russians protested. They also discussed Iran, Putin said.
“They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side.”
President Donald Trump, in a tweet