On Friday, President Trump took a new combative stance against Special Counsel Robert Mueller, going so far as to tweet he never should have been appointed and, therefore, there should not be a Mueller report.
The president consistently has derided the Russia probe as a witch hunt and hoax, but this is the first time he has indicated he could be looking for a way to stop anyone from seeing what Mueller has discovered.
"So, if there was knowingly & acknowledged to be 'zero' crime when the Special Counsel was appointed, and if the appointment was made based on the Fake Dossier (paid for by Crooked Hillary) and now disgraced Andrew McCabe (he & all stated no crime), then the Special Counsel...should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report," the president tweeted Friday.
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The president on Friday also complained that the probe was only started as an excuse for Democrats losing the 2016 election.
"This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime," he tweeted, adding "Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an Election that they thought they were going to win."
An analysis from The Washington Post's Aaron Blake:
The House voted 420 to 0 on Thursday in favor of publicly releasing the Mueller report. Donald Trump Jr. said two weeks ago that Mueller should “put it all out there.”
But signs are increasing that the White House isn’t so sure it wants us to see it.
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Trump doesn’t technically say the Mueller report shouldn’t be released; he instead says the report should never have been written in the first place because the investigation wasn’t warranted. But it’s not difficult to connect the dots. Trump has demurred when asked whether the report should be released publicly, saying simply that it will be up to Attorney General William P. Barr. And given the House’s vote Thursday, Trump’s tweets are difficult to separate from the prospect of a publicly released Mueller report.
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It’s also conspicuous that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a top Trump ally, is now blocking the Senate from taking up the resolution, even though it’s not binding. House Republicans had to vote on the bill, given Democrats control the House and brought it up. But apparently Graham does not want a second chamber of Congress to deliver another overwhelming verdict in favor of releasing the Mueller report.
Trump says 'there should be no Mueller report' (Politico)
Trump suggests, for the first time, there should be ‘no Mueller report’ (WaPo)