US President Donald Trump has rejected claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 American election on his behalf, arguing Russia never wanted him to be president.
Trump made the remarks in series of tweets on Saturday while commenting on a news report about a firm behind a controversial dossier filled with scandalous allegations about the president. The firm, Fusion GPS, “also worked for Russia,” according to the story Trump re-tweeted.
“In other words, Russia was against Trump in the 2016 election - and why not, I want strong military & low oil prices,” Trump commented.
He has previously said Russia would have preferred a weak American leader, like his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“Witch hunt!” Trump continued, denouncing the federal probe into possible ties between his campaign and Moscow before or after the November 2016 election.
The dossier Trump was commenting on is filled with unsubstantiated claims about him supposedly based in part on surveillance in Moscow. Former British spy Christopher Steele was hired by the firm Fusion GPS to create the dossier during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony this week revealing that Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, and others were not registered as foreign agents even though the firm worked for foreign interests.
The White House later on brought up the testimony, and linked it to the dossier.
"Today there was public testimony that further discredited the phony dossier that's been the source of so much of the fake news and conspiracy theories, and we learned that the firm that produced it was also being paid by the Russians,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.