Trump repeated a complaint that Mueller is not looking into the president's political adversaries. His tweets followed several high-profile developments on Monday in the investigation by Mueller, who is preparing a report on his findings. Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller as a final report on Russian election meddling appears imminent. Credit:Bloomberg Prosecutors working with Mueller said Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, had breached a plea agreement, accusing him of lying repeatedly to them in the investigation into Russian interference. In a court filing, Manafort denied doing so intentionally. Also on Monday, conservative author Jerome Corsi said he had rejected a deal offered by Mueller to plead guilty to one count of perjury because he would have been forced to say untruthfully that he intentionally lied to investigators.

Loading Corsi provided research during the 2016 campaign to Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump. For months, the special counsel has been scrutinising Stone's activities to determine whether he coordinated with Wikileaks or its founder, Julian Assange, in the release of hacked Democratic emails during the campaign. Stone and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied any such coordination. In another development on Monday, one of Trump's former aides, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, reported to prison after a federal judge rejected a bid to delay the start of his sentence while a constitutional challenge to Mueller's investigation remains unresolved. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about Russian contacts during the 2016 campaign. But in recent weeks, he has hired a new legal team and complained publicly that he was framed by intelligence agencies, including Australia's looking to smear Trump's campaign. Mueller's 18-month-old investigation has led to charges against 32 people, including 26 Russians. Four aides to Trump have pleaded guilty to various charges, most recently Manafort in September.

George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation. Credit:AP Tuesday was the second day in a row that Trump has employed his Twitter account to attack Mueller. On Monday morning, Trump sought to cast doubts about the special counsel's expected report, questioning why his team has not spoken with "hundreds of people" who saw no evidence of coordination with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Trump also once again accused Mueller of having conflicts of interest, which he did not describe, and suggested that his report should include recommendations about unspecified "crimes of many kinds" committed by Trump's adversaries.

The stepped-up attacks on Mueller have come the week after Trump submitted answers to the special counsel about his knowledge of Russian interference in the presidential election. Prior to doing so, Trump told reporters that he had answered the questions "very easily". Loading In this week's tweets, Trump has not spelled out why he considers Mueller to be "conflicted". But aides have pointed in the past to an alleged dispute over membership fees at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia. Last year, two White House advisers told the Washington Post that Mueller had a dispute over membership fees when he resigned as a club member in 2011. A spokesman for Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, said there was no dispute when Mueller left the club. In the past, Trump has also cited the fact that Mueller served as FBI director under President Barack Obama.