Trump rails against Democrats, media at first rally since Mueller report

US President Donald Trump has launched harsh attacks on Democratic lawmakers and the media after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of alleged collusion between his campaign team and the Russian government in the 2016 election.

Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, said in a four-page summary of Mueller's main findings released on Sunday that the special counsel's team had concluded that no one in Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”

At his first political rally since the end of the Russia probe, Trump claimed that the "collusion delusion is over," and accused the supporters of Mueller’s investigation of trying to overturn the 2016 election and attempting "illegally" to claim power.

"After three years of lies, and smears and slander, the Russian hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over, the special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. I could've told you that two and a half years ago very easily,” Trump told the crowd at Michigan’s Van Andel Arena on Thursday night. “Robert Mueller was a god to the Democrats, was a god to them until he said there was no collusion. They don't like him so much right now."

“All of the Democrats, politicians, the media also – are bad people,” Trump said in the rally. “The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits” helped perpetuate “the single greatest hoax in the history of politics.”

During his speech on Thursday night, the US president repeatedly singled out Democrats including Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) for what he called "fraud" as well as certain members of the media for publicizing the Russia investigation, calling them a "group of major losers."

"Their fraud has been exposed and the credibility of those who pushed this hoax is forever broken and now they've got big problems," he said.

"The Democrats have to now to decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit, partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people … The Russia Witch Hunt was a plot to illegally regain power by framing innocent Americans," Trump said.

Declaring that the country had been "hurt" by the probe, Trump called his opponents "losers" and celebrated the fact that the investigation had come to a close.

PressTV-Trump claims total exoneration as Dems urge full report

Trump has claimed total exoneration after the Justice Department announced Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of collusion with Russia. But Democrats are demanding access to the full report

Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s report only stated that it found no proof that Trump had criminally colluded with Moscow to emerge as the victor of the 2016 US presidential election.

On the matter of alleged obstruction of justice, Mueller said he had neither exonerated Trump nor concluded that he had committed a crime, according to Barr.

Democrats and Republicans are calling on Barr to release the full report, which he has so far refused to do, raising suspicion about its contents among Democrats.

Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining since May 2017 whether Trump’s election campaign colluded with Moscow to try to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.

US intelligence agencies claim Moscow meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

Both Trump and Russia have repeatedly denied the accusations. Trump has sought to discredit the investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and accusing Mueller of conflicts of interest.

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