Trump Cries ‘Fake News’ After Mueller Said He Could Be Charged
Only one topic got under skin of an otherwise jubilant Trump: whether he could still be indicted after Mueller’s investigation.
(Bloomberg) -- Only one topic got under the skin of an otherwise jubilant Donald Trump on Wednesday: whether he could still be indicted after Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In an appearance before departing the White House for a West Virginia fundraiser, the president largely claimed vindication following more than five hours of testimony by Mueller, the former special counsel. But Trump repeatedly accused journalists of engaging in “fake news” merely for asking about Mueller’s statements that Trump could still be charged.
Mueller didn’t reveal new information about his Russia investigation in his testimony, but he said three times, under questioning from two different lawmakers, that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice after he leaves office. Trump refused at first to acknowledge he might yet face criminal charges and claimed erroneously that Mueller later corrected his statements.
“The fact that you even asked that question, you’re fake news,” Trump said to one reporter. He repeated the accusation to another who asked the same question. “He didn’t say that, again, you’re fake news and you’re right at the top of the list also.”
It was the only subject that appeared to irritate the president, who otherwise predicted that the Democrats hurt their 2020 election chances with Wednesday’s hearing and accused them of overplaying their hand on Mueller’s report.
Trump asserted incorrectly that Mueller amended his testimony to rule out the possibility of an indictment once the president leaves office. In fact, Mueller corrected an answer to a question about why he didn’t indict Trump -- he first said that he declined to bring charges because of a Justice Department legal opinion, before clarifying his answer to say that because of the opinion, he didn’t try to reach a determination on whether Trump committed a crime.
He repeatedly said, however, that Trump could be charged later.
“The president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice crimes after he leaves office, correct?” the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Democrat Jerrold Nadler, asked Mueller. “True,” the special counsel replied. Republican Representative Ken Buck later asked, again, if the president could be charged once he left office. “Yes,” Mueller replied.
‘Nothing Wrong’
After initially lashing out, Trump finally responded to a reporter who asked whether he was worried about an indictment after leaving office. “No, because we did nothing wrong. The answer is very simple, nothing was done wrong,” he said.
Trump otherwise claimed a political victory, criticizing Democrats and picking apart Mueller’s performance. He said the testimony resulted in “a devastating day” for the opposition party and again claimed that Mueller’s probe was “a big hoax.” “The Democrats had nothing and now they have less than nothing,” he said.
“We had a very good day today,” Trump told reporters. “This was a very big day for our country, this was a very big day for the Republican Party, and you could say it was a very big day for me -- but I don’t like to say that.”
Trump began the day with a series of tweets that sought to undermine Mueller’s credibility, and the president continued to tweet throughout the testimony. Trump’s public schedule was empty until 4:10 p.m. in Washington, though he had said Monday that he probably wouldn’t watch the hearing.
Mueller said his investigation didn’t exonerate Trump of obstructing justice and that the president could be indicted after he leaves office. He said the Russians sought to interfere in the 2016 election, preferred Trump over Hillary Rodham Clinton and that Russia is still working to undermine U.S. elections.
But he stopped short of offering new insights beyond his report, leaving administration and Trump campaign officials elated. Trump’s Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham called the testimony an “epic embarrassment for the Democrats.”
During the hearing, the former special counsel repeatedly asked lawmakers to repeat their questions and to cite passages from his own report, and he outright declined to answer dozens of questions.
“Robert Mueller did a horrible job,” Trump said. “In all fairness to Robert Mueller, he had nothing to work with.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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