Trump says 'strong things to come out' in Mueller report as William Barr announces press conference

Special counsel will not be at news conference

Donald Trump has said “a lot of strong things” will come out as a redacted version of the report into Russian election interference – and the president’s alleged collusion – is made public.

As it emerged attorney general William Barr would hold a press conference on Thursday morning, a full 90 minutes before a blacked-out rendering of Robert Mueller’s report is published, the president said he may have his own, a sign the White House intends to go on the attack from the outset.

“You’ll see a lot of strong things come out tomorrow,” Mr Trump told Washington’s WMAL radio. “Attorney general Barr is going to be doing a press conference. Maybe I’ll do one after that, we’ll see.”

Democrats said Mr Barr’s decision to hold a press conference before the report was released, was an attempt to “spin” a narrative.

As The New York Times reported White House lawyers had been in contact with department of justice officials in recent days, conversations that had helped the president’s legal team prepare for the report's release, Mr Trump again went on the offensive.

He claimed Mr Barr had done a “fantastic” job in dealing with Mr Mueller’s report and “grabbed it by the horns”. He repeated his own, and Mr Barr’s claims, that his campaign had been spied on by Barack Obama’s administration.

“This should never happen to a president, or to this country, again,” he said.

“What’s happened has been unthinkable … It’s been a disgrace to our country. I hope I going to be able to put this down as one of my greatest achievements.”

Earlier this month, testifying before the Senate appropriations subcommittee, Mr Barr said he believed that “spying on a political campaign is a big deal”.

Asked to clarify his remarks, he said: “I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was adequately predicated and I am not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated.”

It is known that the FBI sought and obtained a warrant from a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, often referred to as a FISA warrant, to monitor Carter Page, the Trump campaign advisor who was suspected of having ties to Russia.

Although Mr Page left Mr Trump’s campaign in September 2016, after articles highlighted his Russian ties, the following month the FBI applied for a warrant to surveil him, CNN reported. The warrant was approved and subsequently renewed three times. Mr Page gave testimony on Capitol Hill and sent a letter to Mr Mueller’s team requesting information about the warrant, but never faced any charges.

Asked by WMAL host Larry O’Connor if he believed Mr Obama “had knowledge of everything that was going on”, Mr Trump said he would leave his answer for another day.

He added: “There are those who say ‘how could it be possible that he did not know’ … I put myself in that category … and it certainly would be had to believe that he did not know what was going on.”

It also emerged two redacted versions of Mr Mueller’s report will be released. Jessie Liu, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a court filing that some legislators will be able to see a less-redacted version of the report.

“The justice department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the special counsel’s report without certain redactions,” Ms Liu said.

Late on Wednesday, House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said Mr Barr’s decision to brief the White House ahead of the report’s release and to hold a press conference before the public saw its contents, represented “unprecedented steps” to spin things.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr Mueller, confirmed to The Independent that neither the special counsel or anyone from his team would attend Mr Barr news conference. He declined to give a reason why.