Orangutan threatens lawsuits

Trump threatens lawsuits over Mueller probe

The president's posts represent the latest development in his renewed assault against Robert Mueller.

By QUINT FORGEY

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to file retaliatory lawsuits "all over the place" over former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

The president, in a multi-post Twitter screed Tuesday morning, also appeared to weigh in once again on the federal criminal case against his longtime political adviser Roger Stone.

"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," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out."

The president went on to accuse Mueller of lying before Congress when he told lawmakers he did not interview with Trump to apply for the job of FBI director, tweeting: "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!"

The president's posts represent the latest development in his renewed assault against Mueller, which escalated last week after Trump expressed his disapproval of federal prosecutors' initial sentencing recommendation for Stone.

The former special counsel's probe resulted in the arrest of the president's longtime informal political adviser in January 2019 and indictment on seven felony charges. Two of the attorneys who prosecuted Stone's case had previously served on Mueller's team of investigators.

A Washington jury found Stone guilty on all counts in November.

After Trump tweeted last Tuesday that prosecutors' suggested seven-to-nine-year sentence for Stone was a "miscarriage of justice," the Justice Department submitted a revised filing that offered no specific term for Stone's sentence but stated that the prosecutors' proposal "could be considered excessive and unwarranted." The four prosecutors who had shepherded Stone's prosecution then withdrew from the case in protest.

Attorney General William Barr confirmed in an interview Thursday that he had personally interceded to walk back Stone's stiff sentencing recommendation, but maintained that he did so hours before Trump tweeted his objection. Barr also urged the president "to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases," and said Trump's social media activity makes it "impossible for me to do my job."

Despite the attorney general's scolding, Trump tweeted Friday that he has the "legal right" as president to demand that Barr intervene in a federal criminal case like Stone's.