President Donald Trump struck a positive tone on the special counsel investigation after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Monday, telling reporters he believed he would be treated “very fairly” and that “Democrats colluded with Russia.”
“I think we’ll be treated very fairly. Everybody understands there was no collusion. There’s no Russia. It was all made up by the Democrats. They’re the ones that colluded with Russia. The Democrats colluded with Russia. And, frankly, the previous administration didn’t do anything about Russia when they knew that they should have,” he told reporters.
Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel investigation, flew with Trump aboard Air Force One to an event in Orlando, Florida, earlier in the day.
Last year, the House Intelligence Committee forced Perkins Coie lawyer Marc Elias to admit that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded the Fusion GPS dossier that alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The dossier, authored by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, was largely based on paid anonymous Russian sources.
In the summer and fall of 2016, Steele and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson used senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr to feed the dossier to the FBI. Senior FBI and Justice Department officials also used the dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The special counsel investigation is reportedly near completion, and the special counsel’s team is said to be in negotiations with White House counsel on a possible interview with Trump.
Washington Post reporter Robert Costa tweeted Monday that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, told him that negotiations over a possible interview “have continued behind the scenes”:
Mayor Giuliani tells me that talks w/ Mueller team over possible Trump intvw have continued behind the scenes. “Jane [Raskin] talks to [Jim] Quarles constantly. We’re still negotiating.”
Giuliani says Mueller’s team hasn’t threatened a subpoena. “They haven’t. I can say that.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 8, 2018
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