A former aide to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign just destroyed one of the president’s favorite talking points about Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
In an interview with CNN, ex-aide Michael Caputo said that Mueller is “still really focused” on possible collusion between Russia and team Trump.
“It’s clear they are still really focused on Russia collusion,” Caputo told the news organization. “They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there.”
Caputo would know, too. As CNN noted, the ex-Trump aide made the remarks just after being interviewed by the Special Counsel on Wednesday.
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He also pointed out that Robert Mueller knows exactly what he’s looking for, and his team is “deadly accurate.”
“The Senate and the House are net fishing,” he told CNN about the ongoing congressional investigations compared to Mueller’s inquiry. “The special counsel is spearfishing. They know what they are aiming at and are deadly accurate.”
Caputo totally demolished the Trump narrative
Like a pull toy, Trump has repeatedly shouted “no collusion!” whenever given the opportunity.
Just after Robert Mueller’s questions were leaked on Monday, Trump repeated the claim in an unhinged tweet, saying falsely that there were “no questions on Collusion.”
So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked†to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see…you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018
But as ThinkProgress pointed out shortly after the president lied on Twitter, “There’s just one problem — the list actually contains 13 questions directly pertaining to ‘campaign coordination with Russia,’ as the Times puts it.”
ThinkProgress added: “Trump’s casual lie about the nature of Mueller’s questions illustrates why his legal advisers think it’s risky for the president to sit down for an interview with the special counsel.”
Once again, Trump isn’t just spewing something that is flatly and provably false. He’s also demonstrating just how detached he is from the fact-based world.
At this point, the only people who believe Russian collusion isn’t a major piece of the Mueller investigation are living or working at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
