Transcript for Trump attempts to shift the focus of Russia investigation onto Hillary Clinton

In the meantime, this is the day the white house has been bracing for. President trump today trying to shift the focus of the probe onto Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. At the same time, the white house attempting to downplay the roles of these men in the trump campaign. Here's ABC's chief white house correspondent Jonathan Karl. Reporter: The white house was blindsided by today's news. Sources tell ABC news, the president had no advance notice from the special council. The first reaction from the president himself, with this tweet dismissing the indictment of the man who ran his campaign -- "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul manafort was part of the trump campaign. But why aren't crooked Hillary and the DEMs the focus? Also, there is no collusion!" And in fact, there is nothing about collusion, or the campaign, in the manafort indictment. What the president didn't know there was another shoe to drop. Special council Mueller later revealing his plea deal with George papadopoulos, the campaign foreign policy advisor who, in fact, was talking with Russians about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. We've been saying from day one, there's no evidence of trump/russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all. Reporter: But the George papadopoulos agreement is about the campaign. It is specifically about the campaign. It has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign, it has to do with his failure to tell the truth. Reporter: Sanders said papadopolous had an "Extremely limited" role in the campaign. But again, there he is, just three seats from Donald Trump. Look, this individual was the member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year. He was not paid by the campaign. Reporter: It's not the first time the white house has sought to downplay the role of someone on the campaign. This is what they said about Paul manafort, who spent five months oteam trump, including three as campaign chairman. Obviously, there's been discussion of Paul manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. Reporter: But he was the chairman of the campaign. Hold on. Can you stop -- Reporter: Paul manafort didn't play a limited role. Hey, Jonathan, somebody is asking a question. It is not your press briefing. Reporter: As the white house downplays Mueller's indictments, the president himself is making the case that the real subject of the Russia investigation should be Hillary Clinton. The president tweeting Sunday -- "There is so much guilt by democrats/clinton. And now the facts are pouring out. Do something." And what will the president do if Mueller continues to focus on his associates and not Clinton's? Is he going to rule out once and for all firing Robert Mueller? The president said last week and I said several times before, there is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to the special council. No intention or plan to fire Robert Mueller. Careful words there. Jon Karl live from the white house. Jon, you asked something else, Sarah Sanders was asked whether president trump would consider pardoning Paul manafort at some point. How did she answer? Reporter: She was asked specifically whexher or not the president would consider pardoning manafort or Gates and her answer was interesting, David. She said, quote, I think we should let the process play through before we start looking at those steps. In other words, the white house is not ruling out pardoning either manafort or Gates. All right, stay tuned on that front. Jon Karl, thank you. Let's get right to our ABC news legal analyst, Dan Abrams. The white house saying today, this is going to end soon, the investigation, so, the question for you, will it end soon, or is this just the first shoe to drop? I don't think there's any way to look at that plaea agreement with papadopoulos and think this is going to end soon. The reason why they made that deal, when you read through the agreement, it is clear they cut that deal so they could investigate others. So this coulde part of a broader investigation. They even say in one of the indictments there's going to be more questioning of people connecting to what they discovered. And I want to ask you about Robert Mueller's strategy. There's been so much talk about this, if he would go for the little fish first and try to get them for flip or if he goes for big names first. It's clear he's going for the little fish first. Papadopoulos, very small fish, but someone with potentially relevant information. The question's going to be, do you also view manafort and Gates that way? Are they trying to put pressure on them to turn in an effort to get information on higher and others in the campaign? All right, Dan Abrams, every step of the way with us, thank you.

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