Trump says will only be interviewed in Russia probe if ‘treated fairly’
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Friday that he is willing to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia meddling probe, but only if he gets fair treatment.
“I would love to speak, but I have to find that we’re going to be treated fairly,” Trump told reporters.
“I would love to speak because we’ve done nothing wrong,” he said.
Trump said Mueller’s team of veteran investigators were Democrats, suggesting he could not get a fair shake in the probe into whether his election campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, and whether he had illegally tried to obstruct the Mueller investigation.
“The problem we have is that you have 13 people that are all Democrats and they’re real Democrats. They’re angry Democrats. And that’s not a fair situation,” Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to Texas.
“I have to find that we’re going to be treated fairly. Because everybody sees it now and it’s a pure witch hunt.”
“There was no collusion with the Russians, there was nothing, there was no obstruction,” he added.
Trump also brushed off revelations by his newly recruited attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, that he was aware of and approved reimbursements to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Cohen made the payment just before the 2016 election to prevent her from going public with claims of an affair with Trump.
After repeatedly denying knowledge of the payment, Trump tweeted on Thursday following the revelations by Giuliani that Cohen had undertaken the payout separately from the campaign “to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair.”
Trump referred to the payments story as “that kind of crap” and said Giuliani was still getting up to speed on his legal position.
“Rudy’s great, but Rudy had just started and he wasn’t totally familiar with everything,” Trump said.