President Donald Trump slammed special counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday, telling reporters he is “a totally conflicted person” and “true never-Trumper,” one day after the former FBI director said his investigation into Russian election meddling failed to exonerate the president.
“Look, Robert Mueller should have never been chosen,” Trump told reporters while leaving the White House for the Air Force Academy in Colorado. “I think he’s totally conflicted.”
>> Robert Mueller says his investigation did not exonerate Trump
The president falsely claimed Mueller wanted to be his FBI director and that he told him "no" before former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him as special counsel in May 2017, The Associated Press reported.
Trump also claimed a previous "business dispute" had stirred animosity between them, although he didn't elaborate on the incident. The Washington Post noted that White House aides previously pointed reporters to an alleged disagreement over membership fees at a Trump golf club in Northern Virginia.
“There’s no obstruction. There’s no collusion. There’s no nothing,” Trump said. “It’s nothing but a witch hunt.”
Mueller spoke publicly Wednesday for the first time since submitting his 448-page report to the Justice Department in April. In the report, Mueller said he found no evidence the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian officials to win the 2016 presidential election, but he declined to make a decision on whether there was enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice.
>> More on Robert Mueller's investigation
“He said, essentially, ‘You’re innocent.’ I’m innocent of all charges,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And you know the things that nobody brings up: There was no crime. There was no crime, and there was no charge because he had no information.”
U.S. Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers last month that he was confused by Mueller’s decision not to answer the obstruction question. He said in a letter to Congress that the investigation identified “no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct.”
Mueller told reporters Wednesday that investigators were hampered by Justice Department policy that bars a sitting president from facing federal charges.
“Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider,” Mueller said. “Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited.”
>> Read the latest from our Washington Insider, Jamie Dupree
He added, “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so.”
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