June 15, 2017

Trump Blasts “Witch Hunt” Amid Obstruction of Justice Inquiry

He also suggested that investigators invented the ”phony collusion” claims against him.

Rex/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump erupted on Twitter Thursday morning to rail against new reports that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the president for possible obstruction of justice.

The pair of tweets come one day after the Washington Post reported that Mueller’s Russia probe has been expanded to include potential crimes committed by the president. According to the report, Mueller has requested interviews with several high-level intelligence officials, including NSA director Mike Rogers, National Intelligence director Dan Coats, and CIA director Mike Pompeo.

The revelation marks a significant twist in the investigation, which until recently had not included a personal examination of Trump himself. The Post reported that Mueller began looking into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice shortly after the abrupt dismissal of former FBI director James Comey last month.

On Monday, Trump’s friend, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, suggested that Trump was considering firing Mueller from the independent investigation—a move administration officials and top Republican leaders strongly warned against. 

Other conservatives, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have shared the president’s disapproval of Mueller, specifically because of the lack of Republican lawyers hired to work on the investigation. On Thursday, Gingrich joined the president’s social media tirade with his own tweets slamming Mueller and the Russia probe:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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