Sarah Sanders says president was referring to ‘the collusion with his campaign – he’s been very clear there wasn’t any’

Donald Trump was “obviously” referring to allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia when he tweeted on Sunday night about “a big hoax”, the White House said, after critics said the president was yet again casting doubt on whether Russia interfered with the 2016 US election.

Trump-Russia: FBI believed Carter Page 'collaborated and conspired' with Moscow Read more

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said: “Obviously the president is talking about the collusion with his campaign. He’s been very clear that there wasn’t any. I think he’s said it about 1,000 times.”

Trump tweeted that Barack Obama “didn’t tell our campaign” about Russia, “because it is all a big hoax”.



That came after a week of criticism over his handling of his Helsinki summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. In Finland, Trump sided with Putin, who denies that Russia interfered. In Washington, Trump confirmed his acceptance of US intelligence conclusions about Russian interference but also said it “could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”

Play Video 1:32 All of Trump's backflips on Russian interference – video report

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Sanders said: “His campaign had nothing to do with Russia; it had everything to do with a great message to defeat Hillary Clinton.”

The special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Play Video 4:47 Russia inquiry: how Trump's inner circle could bring him down – video explainer

Sanders said “we’d all be a lot better off” if “we could get this out of the way and if Congress and the special counsel could come to the same conclusion the rest of America has, that this is a hoax and a waste of time”.

At Monday’s White House press briefing, Sanders reiterated: “The president is referencing the collusion component”. Trump had “faith” in the intelligence community’s findings that Russia interfered, she added, but also that it had no impact on the election outcome.

“The president has been incredibly tough on Russia,” the spokeswoman told reporters. Sanders said he had raised the issue every time he had met Putin and imposed “unprecedented sanctions” on Russia.

Trump tweeted a defence of his actions in Helsinki, writing: “When you hear the Fake News talking negatively about my meeting with President Putin, and all that I gave up, remember, I gave up NOTHING, we merely talked about future benefits for both countries. Also, we got along very well, which is a good thing, except for the Corrupt Media!”

The president also continued to mischaracterize documents released by the FBI this weekend related to its wiretapping of Carter Page, a former Trump adviser.

Trump claimed without evidence that the FBI inappropriately used political research by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to mislead a court into granting a wiretap order, then classified the documents to “cover up misconduct”. His tweets on the matter quoted a conservative activist appearing on Fox.

The documents were released online on Saturday, under the Freedom of Information Act. They noted the political ties to Steele’s work but said the FBI still believed some of his report to be “credible”.

The FBI said it suspected Page had been “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government”. Page denies being a foreign agent and has not been charged with any crime.

Trump tweeted: “A disgrace to America. They should drop the discredited Mueller Witch Hunt now!”



