Trump Claims Victory Following Mueller Indictments

But his boast of 'no collusion' may be premature
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 16, 2018 4:40 PM CST
Trump Claims Victory Following Mueller Indictments
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn as he leaves the White House, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018, in Washington, for a trip to his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Following Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian nationals for crimes related to interfering with the 2016 presidential election, President Trump claimed victory, the Hill reports. "Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President," Trump tweeted Friday. "The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!" Sarah Huckabee Sanders added that Trump "is glad to see the special counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected." But the White House's celebration may be premature.

A "person with knowledge of the probe" tells Bloomberg that Mueller is still investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump or his associates and that Friday's indictments are only a small part of Mueller's investigation, which may include obstruction of justice by Trump. And federal investigators haven't actually concluded Russian interference didn't impact the 2016 election. Furthermore, the indictments disprove Trump's repeated claims that Russian election interference is "fake news," the Daily Beast reports. In November, Trump said he believed Vladimir Putin when the Russian president said Russia didn't meddle in the election. Elsewhere, the New York Times has a profile of one of the people indicted Friday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of Russia's richest men, got his start running a hot-dog stand after prison before eventually running a Russian troll farm. (More Robert Mueller stories.)

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