Trump: Russia investigations a 'coup' to topple US government
US President Donald Trump has denounced Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections as a “coup” to topple the administration in Washington.
“This was a coup,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday. “This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government.”
In his first interview after the release of the Mueller’s report last week, Trump drew an analogy between the Russia investigation and the Watergate scandal, which occurred between 1972 and 1974 and finally led to then-US President Richard Nixon's resignation.
“I think it’s possibly the biggest scandal in political history of our country. I think it’s far bigger than Watergate, because it means so much. This wasn't stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments. This was an attempted coup. It's inconceivable. Like a third world country,” Trump said.
TRUMP: "This was a coup. This wasn't stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments. This was an attempted coup. Like a third world country. Inconceivable." pic.twitter.com/3g8LBIstLS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 26, 2019
Trump insisted that Mueller's team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election had gone “hog wild to find something about the administration which obviously wasn't there.”
The American head of state also blasted his former Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, for “destroying the lives” of his staffers, saying now “tables have turned,” and that “it's time to look at the other side.”
The redacted version of a 448-page report on Mueller's probe was released by the Department of Justice last Tuesday and found no evidence of collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and the Kremlin.
The report only identified 10 occasions that may constitute obstruction of justice by the US president and Mueller's team has yet to make a determination on the issue.
Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining since May 2017 whether Trump’s election campaign colluded with Moscow to try to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.
US intelligence agencies claimed Moscow had meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Trump.
Both Trump and Russia repeatedly denied the accusations. Trump discredited the investigation by calling it a “witch hunt” and accusing Mueller of conflicts of interest.
Throughout the investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people and three companies.
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