President Donald Trump thinks his involvement in the special counsel investigation “will be wrapped up pretty soon,” according to Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and a longtime friend of the President.
“When I speak to the President about this, he thinks there’s nothing to it, that it — that this investigation, in terms of his involvement, will be wrapped up pretty soon,” Ruddy told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. Trump has denied any collusion.
In June, Ruddy told CNN’s Chris Cuomo he thought the President was considering firing Mueller.
But when asked Tuesday if he thought Trump was still considering firing the special counsel, Ruddy said no.
“I don’t believe so,” Ruddy said in the interview on “Amanpour.” “I do think at that time when I said it I was accurate that it was a consideration back in June.”
Although he said he didn’t think Trump was still thinking about this option, Ruddy added that he thought there was evidence to show Mueller is going “well beyond” his jurisdiction.
“I think there’s a lot of evidence that they’ve been moving beyond the original jurisdiction, which was looking at collusion,” Ruddy said. “… What does Paul Manafort have to do with — his indictment, or (Rick) Gates? Even (Michael) Flynn’s indictment has nothing really to do with what the jurisdiction of that investigation was. Was there collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians? All of this is just peripheral stuff.”
