Washington: United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it was ‘unlikely’ that he will be required to give an interview in connection with the Russian collusion investigation.
He made this comment during a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
When asked whether he was willing to give an interview to special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump said, “Well, there was no collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign. Democrats are running for office and trying to say things. For 11 months, we have had this phoney cloud over this administration. It does hurt our government. It is a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election. There was no collusion, so we’ll see what happens.”
When Trump was again asked for a specific answer, he said, “When nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely you’d even have an interview.”
Mueller and his team are investigating whether Russia and Trump’s Republican campaign co-ordinated to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump worked to obstruct an FBI investigation into his aides.
Earlier CNN had reported that Trump’s lawyers are anticipating a request for the President to talk to Mueller.
The United States intelligence community believes that the Russian government was engaged in electoral interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
A January 2017 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that Russian leadership preferred presidential candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an “influence campaign” to harm Clinton’s electoral chances and “undermine public faith in the US democratic process. (ANI)