President Donald Trump said he is considering appointing a special prosecutor to probe former intelligence officials and investigators involved in surveilling his 2016 campaign as well as the Nov. 3 election.
Trump was asked on Fox Business on Sunday about why U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the probe last year, hasn’t released his long-awaited report.
“Before we leave the subject of Durham, I feel like something happened in September. I don’t know what happened, but we were all expecting Durham to come out and A.G. Barr to be aggressive,” Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo said, adding, “Will you appoint a special counsel to investigate and to continue the investigating into what took place in the 2016 election? You mentioned Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe not facing accountability—will you appoint a special counsel?” she asked after several questions about election-related fraud cases.
Trump said that he “would consider a special prosecutor.”
“I call it ‘prosecutor’ because it’s a much more accurate term. They spent $48 million, Weissmann and all Trump haters, they spent $48 million. That was the Mueller investigation. They went through taxes, they went through everything—for $48 million you look at everything, and they found no collusion, no nothing,” referring to former investigator on Robert Mueller team Andrew Weissmann.
Durham is looking into the conduct and the origins of the investigation, leading to one guilty plea. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitted that he fraudulently changed the wording of an email from the CIA to say that former Trump aide Carter Page wasn’t a source for the agency.
“Look, this whole thing is a terrible situation. This should’ve never been allowed to happen,” Trump said, adding that he has been under investigation and obstructed since he declared his candidacy in 2015.
“It was a Russia hoax, just a pure hoax and a very sad thing for the country,“ he said. ”And as much as I’ve done—and I think I’ve done more than virtually in four years more than any president in the history with Space Force and tax cuts, biggest regulation cuts in history, biggest tax cuts in history ... as much as I’ve done, I could have done more except that I was under investigation … from the day I came down the escalator.”
There was speculation that Durham would release the report before the Nov. 3 election but nothing has materialized.
Also in the Fox Business interview, Trump lamented the fact that the FBI and Department of Justice are both “missing in action” over alleged election fraud.
