Trump says Russia 'helped me get elected' for first time in furious outburst at Mueller

US president issues statement riddled with falsehoods about special counsel probe

Donald Trump has admitted Russia aided his election to the White House for the first time during a Twitter tirade attacking Robert Mueller.

It comes the morning after Mr Mueller, speaking publicly for the first time in two years, appeared to hint at the prospect of the president's impeachment by noting only congress has the authority to "formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing".

Reiterating on Wednesday the conclusions of his 448-page report into Russian election interference, the former special counsel declined to exonerate Mr Trump, saying he “would have said so” if his team “had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime”.

Mr Mueller's report outlined 10 occasions upon which Mr Trump potentially attempted to obstruct justice.

On Thursday morning, Mr Trump tweeted: "The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!"

In fact, Mr Mueller made clear on Wednesday that his office could not consider charging Mr Trump because Justice Department policy prohibits indicting a sitting president.

Mr Trump continued: "Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.

"It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false acquisition (sic), and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it.

"Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!"

The apparent claim Russia was effective in helping him get elected was a stunning U-turn by the president, who has previously flip-flopped between saying Russia's interference had no effect on the election and at other times that Moscow did not meddle at all.

Despite posting the same tweets twice - the second time to correct a typo - Mr Trump later backtracked while addressing reporters outside the White House before boarding Marine One.

In what amounted to a series of misleading statements about Mr Mueller's probe, Mr Trump said Russia "did not help get me elected" and instead falsely claimed Hillary Clinton had colluded with Moscow.

Pressed on his untruth that Mr Mueller could have charged him if the special counsel had found incriminating evidence, Mr Trump claimed investigators had "got nothing" and that Mr Mueller had "essentially" said he was innocent.

He also said Mr Mueller was a "total conflicted person" as well as a "never-Trumper" and described impeachment as a "dirty, filthy, disgusting word" when asked if he expected congress to attempt it.