President Trump said Thursday that he hopes the Justice Department is investigating his former Democratic campaign rival Hillary Clinton, saying he’s “frustrated” he can’t be involved in the process.
“Hopefully they are doing something,” Trump said of the Justice Department probing Clinton during a radio interview with host Larry O’Connor on Washington’s WMAL. “At some point maybe we’re going to all have it out.”
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Trump said he was “very unhappy” that federal officials were not investigating Clinton after it was revealed that her campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded opposition research on Trump that was later compiled into a dossier of unverified claims about his ties to Russia. Trump called the dossier “fake.”
“The saddest thing is, because I’m the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved in the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved in the FBI. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing and I’m very frustrated by it,” he said.
Trump’s comments came after the host asked about potential probes into an Obama-era uranium deal from when Clinton served as secretary of State as well as recent leaks emerging from the administration.
Trump often attacked Clinton during the 2016 campaign over her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State, while chants of “lock her up” often erupted at his campaign rallies.
Clinton has cited the FBI’s investigation into the emails as a contributing factor to her electoral loss to Trump.
The FBI recommended last summer that charges not be brought against Clinton.
After defeating Clinton, Trump changed his tune on the issue, saying he would not follow through with a criminal investigation into the defeated Democrat.
“It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about,” he told The New York Times after the election in November 2016.
Trump’s latest comments come after White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly called for the special counsel investigating Russian collusion in the election to open an investigation into the Clinton campaign, as the first indictments in the investigation were filed against three former Trump aides.