Trump dropped an ominous hint that the revenge campaign over Mueller could spread to the FBI and intelligence officials
- In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, President Trump denounced the FBI officials who launched the Russia collusion probe taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.
- "That was a disgrace and an embarrassment our country, that they were allowed to get away with this. Hopefully, they won't get away with it," said Trump of the their actions.
- The president described the investigation as an attempt at "subversion" and "treason."
- On Sunday, Attorney General William Barr said that Mueller's probe found no evidence that Trump's campaign conspired with Russia.
President Donald Trump, in his first interview since special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on Russian collusion, denounced those who instigated the investigation, and said "hopefully, they won't get away with it."
Speaking to Fox New host Sean Hannity, a personal friend, the president renewed his attacks on FBI "dirty cops," intelligence officials, and Democrats, whom he has long accused of running a "witch hunt" against his administration.
After criticising the amount spent on the probe, the president asked "how did it start? You had dirty cops. You had people that are about FBI folks."
He remarked that "at the top, they were not clean, to put it mildly. And what they did to our country was a terrible, terrible thing."
The president went on to express his hope there would be payback for FBI officials who in 2016 launched the probe into contact between Russians and Trump campaign officials, an investigation that was handed over to Mueller in 2017.
He said: "I mean, you can never allow this to happen to another president. This can never, ever happen to a president again, Sean.
"That was a disgrace and an embarrassment our country, that they were allowed to get away with this. Hopefully, they won't get away with it."
It followed a pattern of demanding payback after the Mueller report, which manifested earlier this week in the suggestion from Trump's 2020 campaign that news networks should stop interviewing people who used the Mueller probe to attack Trump while it was in progress.
In the interview, Trump accused FBI officials involved in the investigation of "treason," reiterating attacks on FBI official Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page, long familiar from his furious tweets directed at the Mueller probe.
"They wanted to do a subversion. It was treason. It was really treason," he remarked.
He went on to attack on to attack other critics who have accused him of collusion-including Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, and former CIA Director John Brennan, whom he described as a "sick person."
The president said that he would leave it "to other people, including the attorney general, and others, to make a determination," about what should be done. He said "if someone tries the same thing, they have to know that the penalty will be very, very great, if and when they get caught."
In a summary of Mueller's report submitted to Congress on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr wrote that Mueller had not established that Trump's campaign conspired with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
He noted that "while this report does not conclude the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," with Mueller declining to take a position on whether the president obstructed justice.
The probe resulted in guilty pleas from several Trump officials, and charges filed against Russians accused of involvement in hacking and disinformation campaigns.
In the wake of the release of the report, Trump has renewed his attacks on the news media as well as critics of his administration who have alleged collusion, with the White House sending out a list of commentators they claim should be blacklisted from news organisations for their views on the Russia probe.