Trump lashes out at NBC reporter who asked if he’s worried he could be indicted after leaving office

President Trump on Wednesday lashed out at an NBC News reporter who asked whether he was concerned he could be indicted after leaving office.

Trump denounced the question from NBC News’s Hallie Jackson, who noted that special counsel Robert Mueller in testimony earlier in the day said a president could be indicted after leaving office.

Trump said it was “a very dumb and a very unfair question” to ask whether he could be indicted. 

He also said Mueller himself had backtracked on the issue, though that was on a separate question.

{mosads}“When you saw Robert Mueller’s statement. The earlier statement, and then he did a recap. He did a correction later on in the afternoon,” Trump said. “And you know what that correction was, and you still ask the question. You know why, because you’re fake news.”

“The fact that you even ask that question, you’re fake news because you know what, he totally corrected himself in the afternoon and you know that just as well as anybody,” Trump added. 

Asked if he was concerned he could be indicted once he’s left office, Pres. Trump responds angrily, saying “all of those problems having to do with crime were the biggest hoax of all,” and accusing the reporter who asked of being “fake news.” https://t.co/CXfCvYspNV pic.twitter.com/ZMAR1lWwx6

— ABC News (@ABC) July 24, 2019

Mueller walked back an early statement during his testimony that his decision to not charge Trump was solely based on Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Mueller told the House Intelligence Committee that was “not the correct way to say it.”

“We did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” he said. 

But on the question of whether Trump could be charged after he leaves office, Mueller replied “yes.”

The remark came during questioning before the House Judiciary Committee. 

The former special counsel testified for more than six hours on Wednesday about his nearly two-year probe into Russian interference and whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. Mueller’s report said the investigation did not find sufficient evidence to conclude a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow took place. 

The report also stated that the investigation could not conclusively determine whether the president obstructed justice. Mueller reiterated during his testimony that his investigation did not exonerate the president, a point that many Republicans took issue with.