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Trump demands end to Mueller probe after court filings on his ex-campaign chairman and lawyer

Posted at 12:13 PM, Dec 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-08 13:13:20-05

President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Saturday that Friday's court filings in the Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen cases showed no collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

"Time for the Witch Hunt to END!" Trump tweeted Saturday morning, referring to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

The President also quoted Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, saying "this is collusion illusion" and "there is nothing impeachable here."

Rivera, who made the comments Saturday morning on Fox News, has called Trump a friend and appeared on his hit reality TV show, "Celebrity Apprentice."

Earlier Saturday, Trump tweeted, "AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!"

Giuliani echoed the President on Saturday, arguing that "Mueller's late Friday dump demonstrates yet again no evidence connected to President."

"It also indicates SDNY is asking that Cohen receive a 4 year prison sentence, longest so far, because as we have said he's still lying," Giuliani wrote on Twitter, referring to the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The comments come as Mueller's filings on Cohen and Manafort appear to further tighten the net that Mueller is gathering around the President and his inner circle.

In a heavily redacted document, Mueller said Friday that former Trump campaign chairman Manafort lied about five major issues, including his "contact with administration officials," after agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors in New York also revealed in a set of court filings Friday that Trump's former lawyer Cohen acted at the direction of Trump when he committed two election-related crimes during the 2016 campaign. Prosecutors said Cohen should receive a "substantial" prison sentence of roughly four years for tax fraud and campaign finance crimes.

In a separate filing, prosecutors from Mueller's office accused Cohen of lying to them about his contacts with Russia.

Despite the revelations in the filings, Trump tweeted after their release on Friday, "Totally clears the President. Thank you!"