Trump Says ‘There Should Be No Mueller Report,’ Calls Investigation ‘Illegal and Conflicted’

President Donald Trump said in a series of recent tweets that there should be no report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, condemning it as an “illegal and conflicted investigation in search of a crime.”

In his tweets on March 15, Trump wrote: “So, if there was knowingly & acknowledged to be ‘zero’ crime when the Special Counsel was appointed, and if the appointment was made based on the Fake Dossier (paid for by Crooked Hillary) and now disgraced Andrew McCabe (he & all stated no crime), then the Special Counsel should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report.”

“This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime. Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an Election that they thought they were going to win. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A PRESIDENT AGAIN,” he added.

Trump’s comments come during speculation that Mueller’s investigation—which began in May 2017—is coming to a close and will submit a report to Attorney General William Barr. When that happens Barr will review the report and create his own report to send to Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. He can decide how much to reveal to Congress and the public to explain Mueller’s findings.

During his confirmation hearing in January, Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee his goal is to “provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.”

“I also believe it is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the special counsel’s work,” he said.

Resolution to Release Final Report

On March 14, the House passed a Democratic-backed resolution, 420-0, which calls for any final report in Mueller’s Russia investigation to be made public. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to bring it up in the Senate hours after the House passage but was rejected by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who suggested a number of amendments should be added to the resolution.

This includes appointing a new special counsel to investigate possible misconduct around the handling of the Clinton email investigation and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process against Carter Page.

“Was there two systems of justice in 2016? One for the Democratic candidate and one for the Republican candidate?” Graham said during his Senate address. “Where the Republican candidate’s campaign had a FISA warrant issued against someone associated with it based on a document that was known to be unreliable [and] politically charged on four different occasions.”

In an interview on March 13, Graham told Fox News that there were two questions that needed to be answered in any future investigation.

“There are two questions that I think the public deserves an answer to: Did they short-circuit the Clinton e-mail investigation because they wanted her to win, and they knew if they charged her she might lose? Did they start the Russian investigation against Trump as an insurance policy in case he did win? Those are the two questions that I’ll try to get you answers to,” Graham said.

Schumer objected to Graham’s proposed amendments and the bill did not get a vote.

The president has repeatedly criticized the special counsel’s investigation, calling it a “Witch Hunt.” Mueller has not brought any charges of collusion. It has, however, resulted in indictments for dozens of Russian nationals and companies as well as a number of former Trump associates.