In a phone interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, President Donald Trump accused Robert Mueller of deleting texts between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and Justice Department lawyer Lisa Page. The two were reportedly having an affair when they exchanged messages indicating that they were taking steps to prevent Trump’s election in 2016.
“Mueller terminated them illegally. He terminated the emails, he terminated all stuff between Strzok and Page, you know, they sung like you’ve never seen. Robert Mueller terminated their text messages together, he terminated them. They’re gone! And that’s illegal! That is a crime,” Trump said.
Bartiromo asked Trump why his accusations had not been raised in court, and he said, “I guess it will be, and the Republicans know it.” If evidence that Mueller deleted the texts exists, he would be guilty of criminal activity for doing so.
Mainstream media reports of the interview including those from CNBC and Vox were quick to point out that no official evidence has been presented about possible deletion of emails by Mueller, but Trump may have been speaking about information to which the public is not yet privy.
Lingering suspicions
In reality, Trump’s accusations against Mueller are not new, but this is the first time Trump has made them publicly. In December, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told The Hill’s John Solomon and Buck Sexton that Mueller should be investigated for destroying evidence over the emails.
While Giuliani stopped short of accusiing Mueller of personally deleting the emails, he said he was sure Mueller was responsible for the erasure of the couple’s two phones under Mueller’s leadership.
Trump’s comments to Bartiromo came just hours after it was announced that Mueller would testify before Congress on July 17 regarding his investigation into whether Trump colluded with Russia or obstructed that probe.
Mueller’s unsupported innuendo
Previously, Mueller made tacit accusations against Trump even though there was a lack of evidence offered against the president in regards to both collusion and obstruction. Mueller has consistently insinuated that Trump may have done something wrong, despite his inability to cite concrete proof of illegality.
In a recent press conference, Mueller said that indicting a sitting president is not an option available to him, and he all but encouraged Congress to impeach Trump as a remedy. At the same time, he said that there wouldn’t be any further information or evidence coming from the investigation, as many Democrats had hoped.
The investigation has since been officially closed. Mueller’s comments may be a way to push back against a current probe into the origins of his Russia investigation and whether any laws were broken in spying on the Trump administration.
Attorney General William Barr tapped U.S. Attorney John Durham to examine precisely how how the Mueller investigation started, paying special attention to the evidence that was used to justify the FISA warrants that allowed the FBI to spy on the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 election.
Republicans have long argued that Mueller, Strzok, Page and others at the FBI, including fired former Director James Comey, were tied into the so-called Deep State that operated behind the scenes to thwart Trump’s electoral prospects and, subsequently, his administration’s transition to the Oval Office.
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