President Trump said Wednesday it’s “unlikely” he will answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller, because there is no proof of collusion between his campaign and Russia.
“When they have no collusion — and nobody’s found any collusion at any level — it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview,” Mr. Trump said at a White House press conference.
The president’s legal team believes Mr. Mueller’s investigators will ask for an interview with Mr. Trump in the next few weeks, in what the White House hopes would signal an end to the Russia probe. But there are other signs that the special counsel’s investigation is branching out, including the recent hiring of a prosecutor who specializes in cyber issues.
Asked if he would seek to set any conditions for being interviewed by prosecutors, the president said even congressional Democrats don’t believe there were any links between his campaign and Moscow.
“I’ll speak to attorneys — I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion,” Mr. Trump said. “Everybody knows it. I’ve been in office now for 11 months. For 11 months, they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government. And it has hurt our government.”
The probe has resulted in charges against four of Mr. Trump’s campaign aides, including former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Last June, when Mr. Trump was defending his firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, the president said he would be “100 percent” willing to give his version of events under oath. When a reporter at the time asked the president if he would be willing speak to Mr. Mueller about the firing, the president answered, “I’d be glad to tell him exactly what I just told you.”
Democrats have accused Mr. Trump of firing the FBI director in an attempt to sidetrack the Russia probe. The firing set in motion Mr. Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.
Rep. Ted Lieu, California Democrat and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Mueller’s recent hiring of veteran cyber crime prosecutor Ryan Dickey shows that “he is interested in prosecuting potential cyber crimes” and “the investigation is not ending anytime soon.”
Earlier Wednesday, the president blasted the Russia investigations on Twitter, urging congressional Republicans to “take control” of the inquiries.
“There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes,” the president tweeted. “Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!”
He also accused Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California of being “underhanded and a disgrace” for disclosing details of an interview with a key player who compiled a Democrat-funded dossier of allegations about his links to Russia.
Senate Democrats also released their own report Wednesday asserting that U.S. efforts to respond to Russia’s cyber-meddling in the 2016 election have been hindered by Mr. Trump.
“Never before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a U.S. president,” the report asserts.
At the press conference, the president said he responded to possible questioning under oath by noting that FBI agents didn’t place Hillary Clinton under oath when they interviewed her during the 2016 campaign about her infamous email server.
“When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record, and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s perhaps ridiculous. A lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach — and it really was.”
He reiterated, “There has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians, or Trump and Russians.”
Addressing the claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Mrs. Clinton to lose the election, Mr. Trump said his policies have turned out to be more worrisome for Moscow than Mrs. Clinton’s would have been.
“I am for massive oil and gas and everything else, and a lot of energy. Putin can’t love that, Mr. Trump said. “I am for the strongest military that the United States ever had. Putin can’t love that. But Hillary was not for a strong military, and Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills.”
The president also convened a Cabinet meeting in which, among other things, he said his administration will review the nation’s “sham” libel laws to protect Americans — including himself — from false statements.
“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness,” said Mr. Trump, who is the target of a new unflattering book. “We want fairness — can’t say things that are knowingly false and smile as money pours into your bank account. What the Americans want to see is fairness.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter last week to author Michael Wolff and the publisher of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” He sought unsuccessfully to block publication of the book, which is highly critical of the president and his team.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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