President Trump says that he is confident he’ll be proven innocent in the Russia election meddling investigation if special counsel Robert Mueller treats “everything fairly.”
“Well I hope he’s treating everything fairly and if he is I’m going to be very happy because when you talk about innocent, I am truly not involved in any form of collusion with Russia,” the president said on Sharyl Attkisson’s show “Full Measure” in a wide-ranging interview to be aired Sunday across the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s affiliates nationwide. “Believe me. The last thing I can think of to be involved in.”
Asked if he would consider firing Mueller, Trump said he was confident he would be absolved of wrong-doing.
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Trump also described how he hired Paul Manafort as his campaign chairman in 2016 at the recommendation of a friend.
“Well it was a friend of mine who was a businessman, very successful businessman and a good person. And you know Paul was not there very long,” Trump explained.
He did not name the friend before he proceeded to describe how Manafort was forced to leave the campaign in August 2016.
“Well I think we found out something about him may be involved with … certain nations and I don’t even know exactly what it was in particular but there was a point at which we just felt Paul would be better off because we don’t want to have any potential conflicts,” he said.
Manafort was indicted in Mueller’s Russia probe along with a campaign colleague earlier this week. He is accused of money laundering and other crimes in connection with his representation of pro-Russian figures in Ukraine from 2006 to 2014.
Trump also maintained that he is not under investigation in Mueller’s probe.
“As far as I’m concerned I have not been told that we were under investigation. I’m not under investigation,” he said.
The president granted the interview before departing on a 13-day diplomatic trip to Asia, and he addressed the issue of whether he’d ever consider sitting down with a leader like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
“Well, I’m meeting with different people from different countries meaning as you know China, Japan, South Korea; we’re meeting with a lot of different countries,” Trump said. “I’m going to Vietnam. I’m going to the Philippines after that for big conferences, so I’ll be meeting with a lot of people.”
“I would sit with anybody, I feel. I don’t think it’s strength or weakness. I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing. So I would certainly be open to doing that. But we’ll see where it goes. I think we’re far too early,” he added.