Donald Trump insisted he was innocent of obstructing justice or colluding with Russia, in a pre-emptive strike against today’s testimony to Congress by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
Before Mr Mueller’s much-anticipated grilling on Capitol Hill, the president complained he was being victimised in a “rigged witch hunt” by Democrats.
“It goes on for years and years,” he said in a speech to high school pupils in Washington. “No collusion, no obstruction — that’s not good enough, let’s go more. Forty million dollars, they interviewed 500 people and they got nothing.”
Democrat leaders were hoping Mr Mueller’s appearance before the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees today would highlight damning sections of the report he completed in March which they claim were “swept under the carpet” by the White House.
But Mr Trump told the Teen Action Summit: “I saw Mueller is set to testify again. How many times? Two-and-a-half years. And actually, it started practically from the time I came down on the escalator,” referring to his ride down an escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 when he announced plans to run for the presidency.
He added: “They said, ‘You know he’s got good numbers, we better start looking at him right away, maybe he’s dealing with a foreign country’.”
Mr Trump told students in his audience — many wearing “Make America Great Again” caps — that US attorney general William Barr had already ruled he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Before Mr Mueller’s testimony, Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi issued her own summary of his report into allegations that the Trump election campaign colluded with Moscow and that Mr Trump obstructed justice by trying to shut down the investigation.
She claimed Mr Mueller had “uncovered the truth behind one of the most serious attacks on our democracy in our history”.
Mr Mueller did not accuse the president of any crime but did not totally exonerate him either. Democrats hope his testimony will persuade the public that Mr Trump is unfit for office.
