President Trump put pressure on the special counsel to wrap up its work on Thursday as he prepared to sit down with the Russian president.

Trump is bracing himself for for the outcome of the probe into Russian election meddling in 2016. He has accused Mueller and his investigators of witness intimidation, undisclosed conflicts of interest and political bias this week as he impatiently awaited the results.

He asked hours before he left the White House for Argentina, where he's supposed to sit down with Vladimir Putin, 'When will this illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt, one that has shattered so many innocent lives, ever end-or will it just go on forever?

'After wasting more than $40,000,000 (is that possible?), it has proven only one thing-there was NO Collusion with Russia. So Ridiculous!'

President Trump put pressure on the special counsel to wrap up its work on Thursday as he prepared to sit down with the Russian president

Trump is bracing himself for for the outcome of the probe into Russian election meddling in 2016 and impatiently awaiting the rsults

Trump has said that the Mueller investigation has impeded his ability to have normal relations with Russia, ignoring the malign behavior that led to sanctions on Moscow and probes in the Justice Department ad Congress.

He is weighing pardons for at least one former associate caught up in Mueller's web after the special counsel sent him to prison for financial crimes that were not directly related to the probe's purpose of uncovering which U.S. citizens might have been assisting Russia.

The president publicly acknowledged the possibility of using his virtually unchecked pardon authority to spare Paul Manafort even as newly empowered Democrats are warning that any attempt to use the power to try to sway a potential witness could amount to obstruction of justice.

Although special counsel Mueller's investigators apparently have soured on Manafort, they wanted him enough as a cooperating witnesses that they agreed to a deal that would have allowed for reduced jail time despite his conviction on corruption charges.

'It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?' Trump said of a pardon, speaking in a sit-down interview with the New York Post.

Trump's casual talk about a potential pardon came a day after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tried to avoid the topic.

And it came despite explicit warnings from Democrats and legal experts that the president could face personal legal exposure if he is seen as using a power to try to interfere with a witness while federal prosecutors investigate Russian election hacking.

Incoming House Judiciary chairman Rep. Jerold Nadler told CNN this week Trump 'should understand that even dangling a pardon in front of a witness like Manafort is dangerously close to obstruction of justice and would just fortify a claim or a charge of obstruction of justice against the President.'

Sanders said at one of her increasingly infrequent White House briefings Tuesday when asked about it: 'I'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process.'

Trump also expanded on his relentless attack on Mueller from Wednesday morning, where he accused prosecutors of pressuring key witnesses to lie following developments that could land Manafort in jail for the rest of his life.

'If you told the truth, you go to jail, Trump vented. 'You know this flipping stuff is terrible. You flip and you lie and you get – the prosecutors will tell you 99 percent of the time they can get people to flip. It's rare that they can't,' Trump said.

ATTACK MODE: Trump went after the media and prosecutors on Wednesday

He has complained in the past about the ways prosecutors entice witnesses to cooperate, using the jargon 'flipping' that is used by mobsters and shows up in legal thrillers.

The president also identified the three people he was complaining about in an earlier tweet where he went after Mueller and the media. 'But I had three people: Manafort, Corsi – I don't know Corsi, but he refuses to say what they demanded. Manafort, Corsi and Roger Stone,' Trump said, identifying the people he claims were pressured by prosecutors, without providing specifics.

Corsi is a reference conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi.

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller Russia probe a 'witch hunt' and attacked the special counsel as 'conflicted,' on Twitter alleged prosecutorial misconduct but without saying against whom or providing evidence.

'While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief,' the president claimed on Twitter Wednesday.

'This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!' Trump charged, invoking the Wisconsin senator known for his leveling charges of communist infiltration without providing evidence.

Trump's outburst at prosecutors came amid new twists in the Mueller probe – including prosecutors claiming in a court filing that Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort committed 'lies' contrary to a plea agreement even as he remains confined in a Virginia jail. If a judge agrees with prosecutors and finds him in breach of his cooperation agreement, he could be looking at an extended prison sentence or face additional charges.

It also emerged attorneys representing Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged. Rudolph Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday.

Although the president didn't specify which three people he was referring to, one likely figure is conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who gave media interviews Tuesday blasting Mueller's investigators.

Corsi says prosecutors want him to agree to a plea deal and admit to perjury, but he told NBC he would ''rather sit in prison and rot' than admit to a lie he says he didn't commit.

The network obtained a document laying out some of the information prosecutors had obtained, including emails from Stone and Corsi.

In one email on July 25, 2016, Roger Stone told Corsi - a former Washington bureau chief at InfoWars - to 'get to [Assange] at Ecuadorian embassy in London'.

Corsi replied on August 2, saying: 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.'

WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic emails during the 2016, dramatically upending the race.

The third figure Trump may have been referring to is his former campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose lawyers have been passing information to Team Trump – drawing charges that he may be clamming up in hopes of securing a presidential pardon.

Meanwhile, attorneys representing Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged.

Manafort's lawyers have 'repeatedly' reported back to the President's team for the last two months, the New York Times has revealed.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday.

Legal experts believe the conversations may have been staged as an apparent bid from Manafort, 69, to obtain a presidential pardon or have any potential sentence reduced.

Trump himself appeared to indicate he had insider knowledge of meetings between Manafort and Mueller on Tuesday, as he tweeted: 'Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie.'

And earlier this month he posted: 'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess.

'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.'

Manafort is facing up to 10 years in prison for two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud.

But despite little being known about the conversations between his lawyer, Kevin Downing, and special counsel Mueller's team, it appears Manafort has not implicated the President in any wrongdoing.

Giuliani said Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing said prosecutors grilled Manafort over whether the president knew about the June 2016 meeting between his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. and Russian officials, in which they promised to give up compromising information about Hillary Clinton.

'He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,' Giuliani said of Mueller.

The revelation comes as Manafort was forced to deny meeting with Julian Assange, calling reports that he secretly visited the Wikileaks founder 'totally false.'

Manafort released a statement on Tuesday, hours afterThe Guardian published a story alleging that the two met at least three times, including once in 2016 around the time he was hired by the president.

'This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him,' Manafort said through a spokesman.

'We are considering all legal options against the Guardian, who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.'

The news outlet claimed Manafort allegedly visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012, on three occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2016, citing anonymous sources.