Trump lashes out at Mueller

After special counsel rejects president’s exoneration claims

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US President Donald Trump assailed Robert Mueller as a “never Trumper” and a rejected, conflicted jobseeker on Thursday, a day after the special counsel bluntly rebuffed Trump’s repeated claims that the Russia investigation had cleared him of committing a federal crime of obstruction of justice.

The president also offered mixed messages on Russia’s efforts to help him defeat rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign.

First Trump tweeted that he had “nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected.” That was the first time he seemed to acknowledge that Russia worked to see him elected — something that was underscored in Mueller’s report.

Then on the White House south lawn, Trump told reporters: “Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all.”

Trump insisted that he has been tough on Russia and that Moscow would have preferred Clinton as president. That is not what Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

When asked last year in Helsinki whether he wanted Trump to become president, Putin replied: “Yes, I did.”

Trump’s 20-minute eruption came the day after Mueller pointedly rejected the president’s claims — repeated nearly every day — that the special counsel’s two-year federal investigation exonerated him of criminal activity and was merely a “witch hunt.”

Mueller said on Wednesday that charging Trump with any crime in court was “not an option” because of federal rules, but he used his first public remarks on the Russia investigation to emphasise that he did not exonerate the president.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller declared.

Trump called Mueller “conflicted.” He said falsely that Mueller, who served as FBI director under former president George W. Bush, wanted his old job back, but that he had told him no.

“Robert Mueller should have never been chosen,” Trump said. “I think Mueller is a true never Trumper. He’s somebody who didn’t get a job that he wanted very badly.”

Trump also said Mueller, who is a Republican, should have investigated law enforcement officials whom the president claims tried to undermine him.

He rattled off a series of names of people that he thought Mueller should have been investigating.

Trump mentioned Peter Strzok, a former FBI agent who helped lead the investigation and exchanged anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 election with ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

Strzok was removed from Mueller’s investigative team following the discovery of the texts and later was fired from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Page has since left the bureau.

Strzok told Congress that there was “no conspiracy” at the FBI to prevent Trump from becoming president.

Trump, asked about impeachment by Congress, called it a “dirty word” and said he couldn’t imagine the courts allowing him to be impeached. “I don’t think so because there’s no crime,” he said.