President Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the end of special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election during a lengthy phone call Friday but said he did not raise concerns about the possibility of Russian interference to come in the 2020 contest.
Trump also contradicted his top national security aides on Russian motives in Venezuela, where the United States and Russia are on opposite sides of a deadly political schism.
The two leaders, during their first known conversation in months, also discussed North Korea, whose leader met with Putin last month, and a potential nuclear arms control deal.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office hours after the call with Putin, Trump described a brief exchange about the conclusion of the two-year investigation. Mueller found that while Russia interfered “in sweeping and systematic fashion,” there was not a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
“We discussed it. He actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse,” Trump said. “But he knew that, because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever.”
Trump’s comments Friday came shortly after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that the Mueller report was discussed “very, very briefly” during the morning phone call, which lasted slightly more than an hour.
Sanders said most of the conversation was devoted to other topics, including nuclear agreements, North Korea, Venezuela and trade.