“We have nothing to do with Russia except that we have been tougher on Russia than any administration in 50 years,” President Donald Trump said. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo White House Trump: Russia investigations an attempted 'coup'

President Donald Trump on Thursday called the FBI probe into his 2016 campaign and subsequent investigations into Russian election meddling “an attempted overthrow" of his administration.

“This was a coup,” Trump told host Sean Hannity on Fox News’ “Hannity” in his first interview since the Mueller report's release. “This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government.”


Trump insisted that special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election had gone “hog wild to find something about the administration which obviously wasn't there.”

Trump repeatedly said the 448-page Mueller report, a redacted version of which was released last week, proved no collusion and obstruction. He called the investigation a “one-sided witch hunt” by “angry Democrats” who are “very serious Trump haters.”

“We have nothing to do with Russia except that we have been tougher on Russia than any administration in 50 years,” Trump said.

Trump also went on to say that people in his campaign had suffered greatly as a result of the Mueller probe, and that investigators had spent the past two years “ruining their lives.”

But he said the tables have turned with the Justice Department inspector general's pending investigation of the FISA process in the FBI probe of Trump campaign members, adding that some involved in the process should be "very nervous." The DOJ has said the investigation is expected to be completed by May or June.

Trump called the FBI's campaign investigation conducted in 2016 "the greatest political scandal in the history of our country. Again, bigger than Watergate. Because it means so much this was a coup. This wasn't stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments. This was an attempted coup."

“The biggest problem with the Mueller report, he didn't mention any of this.” Trump later added.