Updated at 10:30 a.m.
President Trump cited the just-released House Intelligence Committee report Friday to further his argument that the special counsel should have never been appointed
“House Intelligence Committee rules that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump Campaign and Russia,” the president tweeted. “As I have been saying all along, it is all a big Hoax by the Democrats based on payments and lies. There should never have been a Special Counsel appointed. Witch Hunt!”
House Intelligence Committee rules that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump Campaign and Russia. As I have been saying all along, it is all a big Hoax by the Democrats based on payments and lies. There should never have been a Special Counsel appointed. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2018
The report, released Friday with redactions, shows how the House Intelligence Committee concluded that there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Moscow. Democrats on the committee have argued the inquiry was closed prematurely.
Trump has long called special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which is also looking at possible collusion, a “witch hunt,” and recently has questioned the legal basis on which it began.
Earlier in the day, Trump seized on the report’s conclusion of no collusion, tweeting that the “witch hunt” “MUST END NOW!”
He also remarked, “Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow!” That was a reference to the Trump dossier, which contains claims unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, that was part of an opposition research operation funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The report was authored by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and was used in part by the U.S. government to secure the authority to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
