Throughout the hearing, however, Rosenstein maintained that he’s not concerned. “I believe based on [Mueller’s] reputation, his service, his patriotism, and his experience with the department and with the FBI, I believe he was an ideal choice for this task,” he said at one point. In response to questions about Trump’s statements that Mueller’s investigation is a “witch hunt,” Rosenstein stressed that “the independence and integrity of the investigation is not going to be affected by anything that anybody says.”

Donald Trump said Democrats created the Russia allegations as a “hoax.”

December 28, 2017

In an interview with The New York Times at his West Palm Beach, FL golf club, Donald Trump said that the Russia allegations are a “hoax” invented by the Democrats “as an excuse for losing an election.” He also stated several times that there’s been “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia, and that he believes special counsel Robert Mueller will be “fair” to him. In speaking about Jeff Sessions, the president said it was “too bad” that the Attorney General recused himself from the investigation, and alluded to the fact that he expected Sessions to protect him in the way he believed former Attorney General Eric Holder did for President Obama.

A new report stated that former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos leaked information that ultimately kicked off the Russia investigation.

December 30, 2017

The New York Times reported (based on information from four current and former American and foreign officials) that while at a London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos drunkenly told Australia’s top diplomat in Britain that Russia had thousands of Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails that would hurt her campaign. Papadopoulos had learned about the emails three weeks prior. Australian officials went to U.S. officials with this information two months later, after WikiLeaks began publishing the leaked emails — leading the FBI to begin its investigation. On January 2, 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald confirmed the Times’s report and stated that Australian ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey “personally steered Australia’s dealings with the FBI on explosive revelations of Russian hacking. During last year’s presidential campaign.”

Excerpts from a new book revealed that Steve Bannon referred to the Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer as “treasonous.”

January 3, 2018

The Guardian reported on excerpts from a new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff. According to The Guardian, Wolff wrote in the book that Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, said the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials (including Donald Trump Jr.) and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” Trump released a statement in response saying that Bannon has “lost his mind,” and later told reporters that the book is a “work of fiction.”

Bannon then released a statement of apology to Axios in which he said, among other comments, that his “comments were aimed at Paul Manafort…[and] not aimed at Don Jr.” He also stated that “there was no collusion and the investigation is a witch hunt.”

Paul Manafort filed a lawsuit against special counsel Robert Mueller, the Department of Justice, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

January 3, 2018

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who was the first person to be charged in Mueller’s investigation, filed a lawsuit against the special counsel, Rosenstein, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to the New York Times. In the suit, Manafort argued that Rosenstein “exceed[ed] the scope [of his] authority to appoint special counsel” and gave Mueller too much power to investigate “anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote.” Manafort also claimed that Mueller has gone too far and that the charges against him don’t relate to the 2016 campaign investigation and asked a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against him and stop the special counsel from further probing Manafort. (As a result of Mueller’s investigation, Manafort has been charged with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts between 2011 and 2014, being unregistered agents of a foreign principle, and false and misleading statements.)