Trump: “Zero Proof” Of Russian Collusion “So Now They Go For Obstruction Of Justice”

Yesterday, when we summarized the latest WaPo article according to which Special Counsel Mueller is now probing Trump for obstruction of justice, we said “the intelligence community basically forced Trump’s hand by slowly leaking out damaging innuendos and accusations over the past several months, while refusing to confirm that he, himself, was never actually under investigation.  In the end, those damaging leaks, combined with Comey’s refusal to confirm publicly that Trump was not under investigation, resulted in Comey’s sudden dismissal on May 9th.  And now, even though he was never a target of any investigation, leaks from the intelligence community have forced a situation where Trump may be under investigation by the intelligence community, a rather confounding, if perhaps well-orchestrated, outcome.”

This morning, Trump essentially repeated that assessment, when early on Thursday he said that “They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice”

They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017

Trump’s Thursday morning tweet his first about the investigation since the shooting Wednesday at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria.

As a reminder, Trump had repeatedly claimed, and Comey affirmed during his testimony, that Comey assured him he was not personally under FBI investigation. But investigators began probing Trump for obstruction of justice soon after Comey’s termination, perhaps as intended. After Comey’s testimony last week, further questions were raised about whether Trump tried to obstruct justice.

Elsewhere, addressing the Russian population, Vladimir Putin echoed Trump’s sentiment, saying so far there has been “zero proof” presented confirming any collusion or interference by Russia in the US election.