Yahoo News ‘Trump is a f***ing idiot’ text message read out live on US TV during Mueller report hearing
Americans have their differing views on Donald Trump but some might have been shocked to hear the President called a “f***ing idiot” on live television.
During the US Senate Judiciary Committee on the Robert Mueller report over alleged Russian efforts to sabotage the 2016 election, chairman Senator Lindsey Graham wasted no time in turning the airwaves blue.
Opening proceedings by talking about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Republican senator said: “We know that the person in charge of investigating hated Trump’s guts.”
Reading out highlights of a text-message exchange between Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who led the e-mails investigation, and his then colleague, Lisa Page, one message - that was read out on air - saw Strzok say: “Trump is a f***ing idiot.”
The Committee saw US attorney general William Barr say he was surprised that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team did not reach a conclusion on whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice.
Mr Barr said in evidence that Mr Mueller told him of his team's plans at a March 5 meeting.
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A Justice Department legal opinion says sitting presidents cannot be indicted.
Mr Barr said Mr Mueller told him he would not have recommended indicting the President even without that opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel.
The attorney general said Mr Mueller told him that there may come a time when the Justice Department should consider revisiting that opinion but that this is not that case.
Mr Mueller has written a letter saying that Mr Barr's summary of his Russia report created "public confusion about critical aspects of the results”.
But Mr Barr hit back at Mr Mueller's obstruction analysis, which neither accused the President of a crime nor exonerated him.
He said: "I think that if he felt that he shouldn't go down the path of making a traditional prosecutive decision then he shouldn't have investigated. That was the time to pull up.”
Democrats were quick to jump on Mr Barr's credibility and accuse him of unduly spinning Mr Mueller's report in the President's favour.
However neither Democrats or Republicans broke much ground on the specifics of Mueller's investigation, though Mr Barr did make a robust defence of Trump as he made clear his firm conviction that there was no prosecutable case against the President for obstruction of justice.
