Trump says he’s not concerned about Mueller report’s release

President Trump said he is not worried about the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, saying it will show the now-closed Russia investigation was “a total phony.”

“I heard it’s going to come out on Thursday. That’s good. And there can’t be anything there because there was no crime. There was no anything,” Trump said in an interview with Minneapolis TV station KSTP during a Monday trip promoting his tax law.

The president repeated his assertion that crimes were “committed by the other side” and not by him or his campaign, saying “this crime was all made up. It was all a fabrication.”{mosads}

Trump was commenting directly for the first time on the Justice Department’s announcement it would publish a redacted version of Mueller’s report on Thursday.

The president has taken a victory lap after Attorney General William Barr released a letter last month saying Trump would not face charges on collusion or obstruction in Russia’s effort to interfere in the 2016 election.

But many in Washington believe the report will contain more damaging information about Trump’s conduct than Barr’s letter, a result that could breathe new life into the Russia controversy and hand a political gift to Democrats.

Some White House staffers who cooperated with Mueller’s team have also expressed concerns that they may be exposed as the source of negative findings about Trump, according to NBC News.

Trump nonetheless has projected confidence that the report would not prove to be damaging to him.

“No Collusion – No Obstruction!” he tweeted Tuesday morning.