With the impeachment out of the way, Donald Trump appears to be turning his focus back to the concluded Mueller probe and the soon-to-be-sentenced Roger Stone. In an early-morning tweet on Tuesday, the president threatened to sue anyone involved in the “fraudulent investigation” and reiterated that he believes the entire situation is a “witch hunt” against him.
Trump began by quoting Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano, who made an appearance on the network to argue that Stone should be given a mistrial. Stone, a long-time associate of Trump and his former adviser, was convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses.
He then went on to argue that the Mueller investigation was part of a long-running attempt to discredit him and threatened to sue anyone involved.
“These were Mueller prosecutors, and the whole Mueller investigation was illegally set up based on a phony and now fully discredited Fake Dossier, lying and forging documents to the FISA Court, and many other things,” he argued, referencing the controversial Christopher Steele dossier.
Trump’s claim that the investigation was “illegally” conducted on the basis of the dossier has repeatedly been proven inaccurate.
The president’s claim that the prosecutors involved in Stone’s case are Mueller employees is only partially true. Two of them worked under Mueller, as The Hill reports.
“Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out. Even Mueller’s statement to Congress that he did not see me to become the FBI Director (again), has been proven false,” he continued, though Trump’s claim that Mueller asked to be FBI director hasn’t been proven to be true or false at this point.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump political strategist, testified under oath that Mueller offered advice about selecting the next director and didn’t appear to be seeking the position for himself.
He went on to conclude that he would sue everyone involved if he weren’t in the Oval Office and suggested that he may still do so.
“The whole deal was a total SCAM. If I wasn’t President, I’d be suing everyone all over the place. BUT MAYBE I STILL WILL. WITCH HUNT!” he concluded.
It’s not evident on what grounds Trump could sue in relation to the Mueller probe.
Trump’s Twitter rant serves to further concerns that the president is still attempting to interfere in the work of the Justice Department, despite Attorney General William Barr’s admonishment last week that Trump’s tweets made it “impossible” to do his job. Stone is scheduled to be sentenced this week
