Trump trashes Robert Mueller ahead of blockbuster hearing

President Trump trashed the upcoming blockbuster Robert Mueller hearing Monday as “another bite of the apple" by impeachment-happy Democrats.

The POTUS called the special counsel “highly conflicted” and said the hearing set for Wednesday would “be bad for him and the phony Democrats."

In a possible preview of Republican efforts to divert attention from Trump’s misdeeds, he also suggested that Mueller should face questions about unspecified Hillary Clinton allies and deleted text messages from FBI agent Peter Strzok that right-wing media have been obsessed with for months.

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Most of the attention about Mueller’s appearance before Congress has focused on how Democrats plan to get him to lay out a road map for impeachment by recounting Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But the GOP have some questions of their own.

As Trump’s tweet indicates, one of their goals will be to tarnish Mueller as a Trump-hater who should never have been named special counsel because of past conflicts with Trump, including a minor dispute over membership in one of Trump’s golf clubs.

The also may attempt to use their questions to raise more doubts about the “origins” of the Russia probe. Some far-right wing figures believe the FBI started investigating Russian interference as a way to block Trump’s election.

They point to leaked text messages showing some agents opposed Trump’s election as a sign that the entire probe should never have been launched.