Trump renews calls for end to Russia probe

US President Donald Trump has renewed his call to end a federal investigation into alleged Russian collusion with his 2016 presidential election campaign, describing the probe as a “witch hunt.”

Trump made the latest plea on Saturday, a day after federal prosecutors detailed a previously unknown attempt by a Russian to help his election campaign.

“Time for the Witch Hunt to END!” Trump said in a message on Twitter. “We’re very happy with what we are reading, because there was no collusion whatsoever.”

Trump’s tweet also quoted his friend and television host Geraldo Rivera, who dismissed any claim of collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia as “collusion illusion.”

It was the president’s second tweet of the day about the investigation by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the last presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and has long called for end to the probe.

Moscow has also denied any interference in US elections.

“After two years and millions of pages of documents (and a cost of over $30 million) no collusion!” Trump tweeted earlier on Saturday.

PressTV-Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen faces 'substantial' prison term

US prosecutors asked a New York court Friday to hand down a "substantial" prison sentence to President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

On Friday, Mueller said in a court filing that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had provided his office with “useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation.

Mueller also said Cohen claimed he was approached in November 2015 by an unnamed Russian claiming to be a “‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation”. The court filing said the contact occurred during discussions about a possible hotel bearing Trump’s name in Moscow.

Cohen is to be sentenced next week for campaign finance violations, financial crimes and lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia. Prosecutors are seeking a substantial prison sentence.

Members of the Democratic Party in Congress and other Trump critics fear that newly appointed acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist, could fire Mueller or undermine the investigation by cutting off its funding.

Republican lawmakers insist that there is no danger of interference in the federal probe.

Mueller accuses Paul Manafort of lying

Mueller’s office also revealed in their court filing that Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Trump’s election campaign, lied to them about several contacts he had with senior Trump administration officials while he was under indictment.

In September, Manafort pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including making false statements about lobbying work he did for the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and filing false reports to conceal money he made from those efforts.

As part of his plea deal, Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s probe into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. However, late last month, Mueller announced that Manafort had violated the terms of that deal.

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