Trump calls on Sessions to stop the Mueller probe

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump talks with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on May 15. 2017.

• President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to urge Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation to a close.
• Trump also tweeted that the charges leveled against his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort are a "Hoax."
• Manafort's first day in court was on Tuesday, and his trial - the first in Mueller's investigation - continued Wednesday.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to urge Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation to a close.

"This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted. "Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!"

Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation last year, and Trump has been openly critical of his attorney general for doing so. Therefore, the special counsel is under the authority of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who Trump has also criticized for giving Mueller too much power.

Trump then tweeted that the criminal case against his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is a "Hoax."

"Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders," Trump tweeted. "He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!"

Manafort's high-profile trial began on Tuesday. He is the first to face trial as part of the special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Manafort stands charged with 18 counts related to tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, failure to register as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice.

REUTERS/Bill Hennessy

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is shown in a court room sketch on July 31, 2018.

'TOTAL HOAX'

Before his tweets calling on Sessions to stop Mueller's investigation and ridiculing the charges against Manafort, Trump once again criticized FBI agent Peter Strzok.

"FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one," Trump tweeted. "He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election."

Trump continued in a separate tweet, saying that Strzok should have never been allowed to remain with the FBI.

Strzok exchanged thousands of text messages with an FBI lawyer named Lisa Page expressing support for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, and denigrating Trump and his backers during the election. An internal investigation found that while Strzok's and other FBI officials' messages were troubling, they did not affect the FBI's findings in the Clinton email probe or in the Russia investigation.

In final tweet on the issue Wednesday morning, Trump doubled down on his calls of a "hoax" - this time in all-caps - to criticize former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, Strzok, Page, and the so-called Steele dossier. Strzok testified under oath in July that the dossier was not what launched the Russia investigation.

"Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX," Trump tweeted. "The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!"