Trump Assails 'Totally Conflicted' Robert Mueller
He
said the man who led the inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the 2016
US election had "wanted to be the FBI director, and I said 'no'".
The
president also claimed the two had had a "business dispute".
On
Wednesday, Mr Mueller reiterated that his inquiry did not exonerate Mr Trump of
obstruction of justice.
Prominent
US Democrats called for the impeachment of the Republican president following
Mr Mueller's comments.
At
the White House on Thursday morning, Mr Trump said impeachment was a
"dirty, filthy disgusting word".
He
said Mr Mueller was a "true Never Trumper", referring to his
Republican critics during the 2016 White House race, and that his investigation
was "a giant presidential harassment".
In a tweet earlier
on Thursday, Mr Trump wrote that the special counsel "would have brought
charges" if investigators had had "anything", but that
"there were no charges to bring".
In
Mr Mueller's press conference on Wednesday - the first and only public comments
he has made in two-year investigation - the former FBI director said that
charging a sitting president with a crime "is not an option" due to a
long-standing US Department of Justice policy.
As
he prepared to board a helicopter to Colorado, Mr Trump continued the attack,
saying "Mueller should have never been chosen".
"He
wanted the FBI job and didn't get it and then was picked as special
counsel," he said.
He
also referred to the special counsel's team of investigators as "some of
the worst human beings on Earth".
In
a tweet earlier in the day, Mr Trump seemed to say for the first time that
Moscow had played a role in helping him to get elected, while disavowing his
own involvement.
"Russia,
Russia, Russia! That's all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt
Hoax... And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia
helping me to get elected," he wrote.
But
on the White House lawn, he said: "No, Russia did not help me get elected.
You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn't help me at
all."
FROM bbc.com/news/world-us-canada
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