President Trump stepped up his attacks against special counsel Robert Mueller early Saturday morning, claiming Mueller’s recently released report “was written as nastily as possible” by “true Trump Haters.”
In a string of early morning tweets, Trump lashed out at Mueller, calling him “highly conflicted” and once again declaring the special counsel’s investigation “the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history.”
“Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!” Trump tweeted.
Trump lashed out at Mueller early Friday, one day after after declaring the report cleared him of collusion and obstruction, claiming some statements about him in the document “are total bullshit” and deriding the 400-plus-page document as the “Crazy Mueller Report.”
The comments came after Attorney General William Barr on Thursday released a redacted version of Mueller’s report. The document did not conclude there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, and it neither implicated nor exonerated the president on obstruction of justice charges.{mosads}
Mueller, however, detailed 10 “episodes” that raised questions of whether the president attempted to obstruct the investigation and opened the possibility of future congressional probes.
“With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” Mueller wrote.
House Democrats this week seized on Mueller’s nonconclusion on obstruction, with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) issuing a subpoena Friday morning to force the Justice Department to turn over Mueller’s full report and the underlying evidence. Nadler set a May 1 deadline for the department to comply.
“My Committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice. The redactions appear to be significant. We have so far seen none of the actual evidence that the Special Counsel developed to make this case,” Nadler said. The committee chairman added that it is up to Congress “to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct” by Trump depicted in Mueller’s report.
Trump repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Mueller’s probe throughout the special counsel’s 22-month investigation, frequently denouncing the probe as a “witch hunt” aimed at undermining his administration.