Shropshire Star

Trump ‘unlikely’ to give interview to Russia collusion investigators

His lawyers have previously stated their determination to co-operate with requests in the probe.

Published
Last updated
(Evan Vucci/AP)

Donald Trump has said it “seems unlikely” that he would give an interview in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Mr Trump said “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he would provide an interview to Mr Mueller’s team.

“When they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview,” Mr Trump said during a joint news conference with the prime minister of Norway.

The special counsel’s team of investigators has expressed interest in speaking with Mr Trump, but no details have been worked out.

Mr Trump’s lawyers have previously stated their determination to co-operate with requests in the probe, which has already resulted in charges against four of Mr Trump’s campaign advisers.

Mr Trump called the investigation a “phony cloud” over his administration.

“It has hurt our government,” he said. “It was a Democrat hoax.”

The comments come after Mr Trump had already lashed out at the investigations on Twitter on Wednesday morning, urging Republicans to take control of the inquiries and repeating his claim that they are on a “witch hunt”.

“There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes,” he tweeted. “Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!”

In a separate tweet, Mr Trump accused Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein of being “underhanded and a disgrace” for disclosing details of a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia during the presidential campaign.

A day earlier, Ms Feinstein, who faces a primary challenge in her re-election this year, released the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s closed-door August interview with an official from the political opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the dossier.

She released the transcript of Glenn Simpson’s interview against the objections of the committee’s Republican chairman Chuck Grassley. She is the top Democrat on the panel.

“The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace,” Mr Trump tweeted. “Must have tough Primary!”

The material was not classified, and Ms Feinstein said that she did not do anything illegal.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.