President Donald Trump offered a defense of Paul Manafort’s character in Dallas. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Trump on Russia probe: ‘I love fighting these battles’

President Donald Trump on Friday called the federal investigation into Russian election interference “a total disgrace” while acknowledging that he cherishes “fighting these battles.”

Addressing the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Dallas, the president touted recently unveiled economic indicators that show the U.S. employment rate has fallen to 3.9 percent, its lowest in nearly two decades at.


Despite the positive economic development, Trump told the crowd that “all we hear about is this phony Russia witch hunt.”

The president lauded a recent challenge from a federal court to special counsel Robert Mueller, who U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said was pursuing cases against a former Trump campaign official in hopes he would testify against the president and others.

Ellis on Friday said Mueller didn’t really “care” about the charges filed against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, casting his indictment of the former official as unrelated to the scope of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Manafort, a longtime lobbyist and political consultant, has been indicted in two criminal cases, with charges ranging from money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent to bank fraud and tax evasion. Ellis is adjudicating the case over the latter charges.

The president offered a defense of Manafort’s character in Dallas.

“He’s a good person. He is,” Trump said. “I really believe he is a good person.”

But while Trump lamented the ongoing focus on the Russia investigation, he said he still relished the conflict.

“Let me tell you, folks. We’re all fighting battles,” Trump said. “But I love fighting these battles.”

Trump’s recitation of the Friday court proceedings isn’t the first time the president has tried to separate himself from his former campaign manager, a Republican operative whose work in presidential politics dates back to President Gerald Ford’s 1976 delegate-hunting operation.

Last October, reacting in real time as news broke of Manafort’s indictment, Trump questioned the gap between when Mueller had filed his charges and the alleged illegal activity.

“Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,” Trump wrote that Monday morning. “But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????” He added: “….Also, there is NO COLLUSION!”

A day later, Trump again attacked the indictment in a two - part tweet that sought to downplay a separate move by Mueller obtaining a guilty plea against the former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos for lying to the FBI.

“The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was “no collusion” and events mentioned took place long before he...” Trump wrote, adding, “....came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!”

While Manafort has been out of Trump’s immediate orbit since he was fired from the campaign in August 2016, the president and his aides haven’t totally abandoned him, either.

Reince Priebus, then the incoming White House chief of staff, spoke by phone with Manafort in January 2017 a week before Trump’s inauguration to discuss what Manafort said were inaccuracies in the recently published so-called dossier that alleged connections between Trump and Russia, POLITICO reported last May.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on the day of Manafort’s first indictment last October that the “the last known conversation” between Trump and Manafort happened in February. “And as far as anything beyond that, with Paul, I’m not sure of any other contact,” she said.

John Dowd, one of Trump’s personal attorneys at the time, also discussed the idea of a presidential pardon with Manafort’s lawyers last year before his indictment, according to a New York Times report in March.

But Dowd, who has since resigned as a lawyer for the president, denied the newspaper’s account. “There were no discussions. Period,” he told the Times.

