Trump appears to push for DOJ probe into Hillary Clinton scandals
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President Trump branded Robert Mueller's Russia probe a "witch hunt." (AP)
President Trump took to Twitter Tuesday to promote calls for the Justice Department to investigate alleged criminal activity by his former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton -- citing a Fox News analyst who suggested that the DOJ may be sitting on a "treasure trove" of evidence.
Trump quoted Fox News' Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, who suggested on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" that someone at the department may have evidence of criminality from Clinton or her camp that should be investigated.
Napolitano was, in turn, reacting to an interview Trump gave to Fox's "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on Saturday night when he suggested that someone should look into the Clinton campaign's "fraudulent actions" during the 2016 presidential run in relation to the funding of a controversial anti-Trump dossier that was used by the FBI and DOJ to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
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In the wake of his election, Trump backed down on his campaign call to have the DOJ investigate Clinton, but he has returned to the “lock her up” theme since then -- and has repeatedly criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not investigating Clinton more aggressively.
In his tweets Tuesday, Trump also branded FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe a witch hunt, quoting experts who appeared on “Fox & Friends” to support his long-standing argument that the probe is baseless and that there was no collusion between members of his team and Russian-linked individuals in the 2016 election.
Ken Starr, the independent counsel tasked with investigating Clinton administration controversies in the 1990s, said on Sunday that there has been “no evidence of collusion” so far from the Mueller team, prompting a tweet from the president’s account.
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Trump quoted constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, who also downplayed the probe on Sunday, noting that collusion was implausible based on evidence seen so far.
Trump then tweeted in all caps:
Trump’s tweets come after the release of a Democratic rebuttal to a GOP memo that found that intelligence agencies had used a Democratic-funded dossier as the basis to get a warrant to spy on Page.
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DEMS' REBUTTAL TO GOP FISA MEMO IS RELEASED; TRUMP DEEMS IT A 'BUST'
Trump branded the Dem memo a “total political and legal bust.”
Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion from his team and has claimed that the investigation is politically motivated and pushed by Democrats upset by Trump’s win.