Trump in bombshell interview admits he would accept dirt about opponents from foreign powers: 'I think I'd take it'

President claims 'oppo research' is not election interference

Donald Trump has said he would listen if foreign powers offered him damaging information about a political rival, saying he might not call the FBI.

Two months after the publication of Robert Mueller’s report into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, a report that detailed numerous interactions between Russians and members of the president’s circle, Mr Trump said he would look at information on his 2020 rivals provided by foreign powers.

“I think maybe you do both,” he said, asked if he would call the FBI or accept the material.

“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening.” He added: “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ – oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”

Speaking to ABC News on a day his eldest son testified behind closed doors on Capitol Hill about the now infamous Trump Tower meeting between members of the president’s campaign and a Kremlin-linked lawyer, the president suggested being handed such information did not amount to electoral interference.

“It’s not an interference, they have information – I think I’d take it,” Mr Trump said. “If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI – if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research, ‘oh let’s call the FBI’.”

He added: “The FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to congressman, they all do it, they always have, and that’s the way it is. It’s called oppo research.”

When it was pointed out that FBI director Christopher Wray said last month in congressional testimony that his organisation would want to hear about any foreign election meddling, the president dismissed it.

“The FBI director is wrong, because frankly it doesn’t happen like that in life,” Mr Trump said. “Now maybe it will start happening, maybe today you’d think differently.”

He said he had “seen a lot in his life” but that he had never called the FBI.

“In my whole life. You don’t call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do,” he said. “Oh, give me a break – life doesn’t work that way.”

The president’s eldest son was among those who took part in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has headed several legal and lobbying efforts in the US on behalf of senior Russians. He said he agreed to take the meeting after she promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, something he said she never provided, and which she denied offering.

Speaking on a visit to France in July 2017, Mr Trump said of the meeting his son took part in: “I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. Politics isn’t the nicest business in the world, but it’s very standard.”

Mr Mueller’s probe found no evidence of a conspiracy between Moscow and members of the president’s team. On the question of obstruction of justice, Mr Mueller said his team was unable to exonerate the president and that prosecutors were unable – because of longstanding department of justice guidelines – to consider indicting a sitting president. He indicated such a role fell to Congress.

Mr Barr and his then deputy Rod Rosenstein, decided there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr Trump.