Trump slams 'fabricated' testimony in Mueller report

Published April 19, 2019
US President Donald Trump walks to speak with supporters after arriving on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport to spend Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida. — AFP
US President Donald Trump walks to speak with supporters after arriving on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport to spend Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida. — AFP

US President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed unfavorable testimony in the Mueller report on Russian election interference as “fabricated” and labelled the document “crazy”.

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” the president tweeted.

A 400-page document outlining the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month investigation, made public on Thursday, cleared Trump of criminal conspiracy but left open whether he had obstructed justice.

Mueller's report recounts 10 episodes involving the president and potential obstruction of the investigation.

After reviewing the document, Attorney General Bill Barr and his deputy Rod Rosenstein concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge the president with obstruction.

Mueller, however, noted that while he was following Justice Department policy in not charging Trump, the evidence he gathered “does not exonerate” the Republican president.

Trump initially celebrated the publication of the report — which landed as the United States dives into the ferment of a bitter presidential campaign — saying at the White House that he was “having a good day”. But he was in a more defensive mood on Friday, as he prepared for a long Easter weekend at his Florida golf resort, insisting that he had done nothing wrong.

Public 'misled'

“Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the 'Report' about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad),” Trump added, repeating his description of the investigation as an “Illegally Started Hoax”.

Mueller said in his report that Trump's “efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests”.

The episodes of potential wrongdoing, which will now be examined by the Democrat-led House of Representatives, include the firing of FBI chief James Comey, Trump's efforts to remove Mueller and his attempts to prevent disclosure of emails about the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and senior campaign officials.

Democrats meanwhile have demanded action against Barr, arguing that Mueller's report undercut some of the attorney general's key claims about the obstruction issue and the White House's cooperation with the investigation.

“There are at least four significant ways that Mr Barr has misled the public on the contents of the Mueller report,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement.

Eric Swalwell, a California congressman, called for Barr's resignation while several others berated him. They accused Barr of suggesting publicly and falsely that Mueller had not intended for Congress to resolve the obstruction issue.

Opinion

Editorial

Reserved seats
Updated 15 May, 2024

Reserved seats

The ECP's decisions and actions clearly need to be reviewed in light of the country’s laws.
Secretive state
15 May, 2024

Secretive state

THERE is a fresh push by the state to stamp out all criticism by using the alibi of protecting national interests....
Plague of rape
15 May, 2024

Plague of rape

FLAWED narratives about women — from being weak and vulnerable to provocative and culpable — have led to...
Privatisation divide
Updated 14 May, 2024

Privatisation divide

How this disagreement within the government will sit with the IMF is anybody’s guess.
AJK protests
14 May, 2024

AJK protests

SINCE last week, Azad Jammu & Kashmir has been roiled by protests, fuelled principally by a disconnect between...
Guns and guards
14 May, 2024

Guns and guards

THERE are some flawed aspects to our society that we must start to fix at the grassroots level. One of these is the...