WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Friday intensified his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in his latest effort to undermine the findings in Mueller’s highly anticipated report, saying “people will not stand for it.”
The probe is widely expected to end in the coming weeks, but Trump was focused on its beginnings rather than its conclusion, complaining about Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein’s appointment of Mueller in May 2017. Rosenstein appointed the special counsel after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“I have a deputy, appoints a man to write a report on me, to make a determination on my presidency,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network. “People will not stand for it.”
Trump bemoaned that the special counsel was “best friend” to Comey, who succeeded Mueller as FBI director. There’s no evidence the two are close friends.
Mueller was appointed following the recusal two months earlier of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That action entangled Rosenstein, whose memo castigating Comey was cited by the White House as justification for his firing. In addition, Rosenstein didn’t appoint Mueller to write a report – that’s simply the ordinary course of action laid out in the special counsel regulations.