Trump: It’s OK with me if Russia probe report is made public
Washington — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it doesn’t matter to him if the public sees the report that will be issued by Special Counsel Robert Mueller , who is investigating links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin.
When asked at the White House if the public should be allowed to see the report, as Democratic lawmakers have been requesting, Trump said: “I don’t mind.â€
“Let it come out, let people see it,†Trump told reporters before departing for Ohio to tour an Army tank plant and raise money for his 2020 re-election campaign.
However, the president added that releasing the report is “up to the attorney general ... and we’ll see what happens,†referring to William Barr , who is overseeing the Mueller investigation and, so far, has not made a commitment to make the report public.
Trump said that Barr was well-respected and suggested he would leave it up to him to decide whether or not to release the full report.
Despite the circulating rumors that Mueller and his team of attorneys are winding down their investigation and wrapping up their work, Trump said he does not know when the final report will be ready, but he said “Let’s see whether or not it’s legit.â€
Trump went on to say that his 2016 election win over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, was “one of the greatest ... in the history of this country,†adding that Mueller had no popular support.
The president called Mueller - a former FBI director - “a man out of the blue†who is “writing a report that never got a vote.â€
“My voters don’t get it and I don’t get it,†Trump said regarding the Mueller probe.
He also said that Mueller had conflicts of interest, claiming that his “best friend†is former FBI Director James Comey , who Trump fired because he would not shut down the Russia probe.
Mueller was appointed to be special counsel in May 2017 - shortly after Trump fired Comey - by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after then-AG Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigations or other matters dealing with the Russia probe because he had worked closely with Trump’s campaign.
According to Justice Department regulations, Mueller must prepare and submit a final report of his investigation to the attorney general but whether or not to make portions of it, or the full report, public it is up to the AG.
Trump had called Mueller’s investigation “illegal†last week and said that there should never have been a probe into his campaign’s contacts with Russia.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted unanimously 420-0 in favor of making Mueller’s report public.
To date, Mueller’s investigation has produced dozens of indictments, including several against Trump’s long-time personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, who will shortly begin serving a three-year prison sentence, and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to more than seven years behind bars in two separate trials.
