By Adam Shaw, Brooke Singman | Fox News
President Trump, in an extensive interview Friday on “Fox & Friends,” tore into what he termed “dirty politicians” behind the Russia probe a day after transcripts were released showing that top Obama officials said they knew of no “direct” evidence of collusion involving the Trump campaign.
“It was a very dangerous situation what they did,” he said. “These are dirty politicians and dirty cops and some horrible people and hopefully they’re going to pay a big price in the not too distant future.”
It was a vague but ominous warning from the commander-in-chief, considering the history of the Russia probe is being reviewed to this day by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
Trump was specifically reacting to newly released transcripts of interviews from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation revealed top Obama officials acknowledged they knew of no “empirical evidence” of a conspiracy despite their concerns and suspicions,
The officials’ responses align with the results of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation—which found no evidence of criminal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, while not reaching a determination on obstruction of justice.
The transcripts, which were released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., revealed top Obama officials were questioned over whether they had or had seen evidence of such collusion, coordination or conspiracy — the issue that drove the FBI’s initial case and later the special counsel probe.
“I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified in 2017. “That’s not to say that there weren’t concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence. … But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence.”
OBAMA KNEW DETAILS OF WIRETAPPED FLYNN CALL
Trump used those revelations to double down on his assertion that the entire investigation was a politically motivated hoax.
“Well absolutely I think most people knew it from the beginning and they knew it was just a total hoax, a made-up story, a total disgrace to our nation. It made it impossible to deal with other countries, including Russia, because of what they were doing,” he said.
Schiff published the files — approved in late 2018 for release by the committee — after facing pressure earlier this week from Republicans to do so. Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell then notified Schiff that the redaction and declassification process was complete, and that the records were ready to be made public.
Schiff, though, faulted the White House for the delay, accusing them of dragging their feet on the classification review.
And even as officials in those interviews said they didn’t have hard evidence of collusion, conspiracy or coordination, Schiff pointed to a variety of examples he described as “ample evidence of the corrupt interactions” between Trump associates and Russia.
For instance, he cited how Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., infamously accepted an offer of supposed Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton.
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