WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Friday seized on a portion of a federal judge's remarks during the sentencing of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a financial-crimes case to again criticize the Russia investigation and declare a finding of "no collusion."
"Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!" Trump said in a Twitter post.
Speaking to reporters before he left for Alabama to inspect tornado damage, Trump said the sentencing judge, T.S. Ellis III of U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., had said "there was no collusion with Russia." Trump added that he was "very honored" Ellis made that statement.
Trump, however, misrepresented Ellis' comment.
On Thursday, Ellis had said Manafort was "not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election."
Manafort was not charged with or convicted of any crimes of collusion. His case was prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller's office but was unrelated to Mueller's core mission of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort on Thursday received a sentence of nearly four years for financial crimes for which sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of 19 to 24 years. He was convicted in August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.
"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort," Trump told reporters Friday outside the White House. "I think it's been a very, very tough time for him."
Manafort's attorneys used the same talking point as the president on Thursday, saying in a brief statement after the hearing, "There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia."
In his tweet, Trump also stated that Ellis' ruling is consistent with statements from the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that have been conducting separate investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Last year, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee issued a 250-page report detailing their findings that there was no evidence that the Trump campaign helped Russia interfere in the election. With the Democrats in control of the House, the Intelligence Committee is broadening the investigation to include Russian interference as well as Trump's finances.
Trump singled out Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said in February that the panel had not seen any evidence "that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia." The committee's investigation is ongoing.
TRANSCRIPT RELEASED
Meanwhile, House Republicans on Friday released the transcript of an interview with a Justice Department official linked to the early days of the Russia investigation, renewing their efforts to raise questions about the origins of the special counsel's inquiry and pushing back on the new investigations Democrats have opened into Trump.
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, released the transcript of a private interview with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who was in contact with a former British spy hired to investigate potential ties between Trump and Russia as the investigation got its start in 2016.
Collins said there would be more transcripts to come -- though didn't specify which ones.
The move is the latest example of Republicans' attempts to push back against the investigations, which Trump has called "presidential harassment." Republicans have slammed the Democrats' new investigations, saying they are overreach and a continuation of what they say was anti-Trump bias at the Justice Department. Mueller took over the investigation in May 2017.
Collins said Republicans are going to tell the story "on how we got here," adding that "if you ever lose context of where you come from, you lose context of what the answer may be."
The Democratic chairman of the judiciary panel, New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, announced Monday that the committee was sending 81 document requests to people linked to Trump and that the panel would open a broad investigation of the president's political, business and personal dealings. That followed announcements of similar investigations from the House Intelligence Committee and its oversight panel.
Ohr was a key figure in an investigation opened by Republicans in 2017 that looked at whether officials in the Justice Department were biased or conspired against Trump as he campaigned for the presidency. Ohr is a longtime Justice Department official who attracted scrutiny in part because of his wife's job at a political research firm that hired a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to investigate Trump's Russian ties.
Ohr himself was a longtime contact of Steele, and told members of Congress that he passed along certain information that Steele gave to FBI and Justice Department officials who, in 2016, were investigating Russia's efforts to influence the election.
According to the transcript, Ohr told lawmakers how Steele had revealed to him that Russian intelligence officials believed they had Trump "over a barrel," suggesting a possibility of compromising information.
The information Steele gathered for his research was compiled into a dossier. Collins said Friday that he remained concerned that the dossier, which he said included "unverified" and "salacious" details, was later used by the FBI to apply for and receive a secret warrant to monitor the communications of a Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.
Democrats have maintained throughout the GOP investigation in 2017 and 2018 that it was merely a distraction from Mueller's investigation -- and closed it promptly when they won the majority.
Neither Nadler nor the chairman of the oversight panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, commented on Collins' release of the Ohr transcript. Other Democrats on the panel said Friday that they support transparency but view the release as an effort to undermine Mueller.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said the panel has "very serious matters" to investigate. "They are basically posting graffiti with all of these sideshow escapades," Raskin said of Republicans.
Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times; by John Wagner and Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post; and by Mary Clare Jalonick and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/09/2019