President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering new attack Friday on Robert Mueller, as he tapped a veteran conservative lawyer to head the US Justice Department — and assume oversight of the special counsel’s Russia investigation as it inches ever clos…
President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering new attack Friday on Robert Mueller, as he tapped a veteran conservative lawyer to head the US Justice Department — and assume oversight of the special counsel’s Russia investigation as it inches ever closer to the White House.
The latest of Trump’s increasingly frequent outbursts against the probe came ahead of crucial court filings that could reinforce suspicions the president’s campaign colluded with a Russian effort to get him elected in 2016, or that Trump himself sought to obstruct justice — two of Mueller’s lines of inquiry.
Trump fired off a feverish volley of early morning tweets rejecting the probe as a «total witch hunt,» accusing Mueller of «big time conflicts of interest» and alleging the prosecutor coerced false testimony from witnesses.
With speculation swirling that Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly may be on his way out, the president also lashed out at a gallery of figures from the campaign of his former rival Hillary Clinton, to former FBI director James Comey, to his own deputy attorney general who he said was «totally conflicted.»
The president also vowed his lawyers would produce a «major Counter Report» to rebut Mueller’s findings, as and when he delivers them.
«Already 87 pages done, but obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report,» he fumed. «This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!»
— New attorney general —
Shortly afterwards, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump announced his intention to nominate William Barr as his new attorney general — succeeding Jeff Sessions, who he sacked last month.
