Vice-president tells NBC: ‘I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Mike Pence, the US vice-president, said Robert Mueller should end his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and alleged collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

“In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up,” Pence told NBC News early on Thursday morning after meeting three Americans just released by North Korea.

Trump declared in late April that the investigation “MUST END NOW!” after congressional Republicans released a report saying they found no evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia.

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Andrea Mitchell of NBC asked Pence if he thought the investigation was a “hoax”, borrowing a term Trump has repeatedly used to describe Mueller’s inquiry.

“What I think is that it’s been about a year since this investigation began, our administration provided over a million documents, we fully cooperated in it,” Pence said. “In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up. And I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.”

The vice-president hired outside legal counsel in June 2017 to assist him in Mueller’s investigation.

Mitchell also pressed Pence about the hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments from companies to Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. She asked how that meshed with the administration’s goal, often repeated during the election campaign of “draining the swamp”, a reference to a perceived culture of favors and lobbyist influence in Washington.

Pence, often seen at Trump’s side but seldom heard on the national or international stage, said it was a “private matter” and “something I don’t have any knowledge about.”

In the nearly four-minute interview, as Pence celebrated the administration’s role in freeing three Americans from North Korean labor camps. The men landed at Andrews air force base at 2.42am and were greeted by Pence, his wife Karen, and Donald and Melania Trump.

Trump and Pence are heading to Indiana on Thursday for a rally.