Although Republican circles have sought to discredit the long-winded probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, President Donald Trump has said that he believes he will receive a fair treatment from the former FBI chief.
Renewing his assertion that there has been “no collusion” between his campaign and the Russian government as alleged by Democrats, Trump told The New York Times: “It (the probe) makes the country (US) look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position. So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.”
“There’s been no collusion. But I think he (Mueller) is going to be fair,” Trump said in the course of a 30-minute impromptu interview at his Florida golf club to a newspaper that he frequently derides as “the failing New York Times”.
Sticking to his refrain that Democrats invented the allegations of his Russia nexus as a “ruse” and an “excuse” for having lost the presidential race, Trump is reported to have insisted 16 times during the interview that there has been “no collusion” discovered by the Mueller probe thus far. He commented that he was not bothered as to how soon the probe would be completed since he had nothing to hide.
Several Republican lawmakers have in recent days come out strongly against the continuing Mueller probe which they had expected to wrap up by November. The investigation has gone for nearly seven months so far, leading to indictment of two top advisers to the Trump campaign in October, and guilty pleas from two others early this month.
While former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were charged with money laundering and other crimes related to political lobbying for the erstwhile Ukraine government, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos entered guilty pleas and are cooperating with the investigation.
Distancing himself from Manafort, whom he otherwise called a “very nice man” and “an honorable person”, Trump suggested that he worked with his campaign for only a few months. In contrast, Manafort had worked far longer for the campaigns of other Republican candidates, including former President Ronald Reagan, and former presidential candidates John McCain and Bob Dole.
Asked about the possibility of reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails saga, Trump commented: “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department. But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter (over alleged Russian meddling).”