Trump says the Mueller probe should NEVER have started and is a 'Witch hunt'

President Donald Trump has again repudiated Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia, calling it a 'Witch hunt' that never should have started in the first place.

'The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,' Trump tweeted on Saturday night. 

'It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!' he continued.

Earlier in the day, Trump's lawyer backtracked on an earlier demand for the deputy attorney general to shut down the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the elections.

John Dowd said on Saturday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should follow the example of his boss, Jeff Sessions, and fire Mueller

Dowd made the comments to The Daily Beast.

He later walked back the statements, insisting that he was only speaking for himself and not on the president’s behalf.

Robert Mueller’s Team defends investigation after Trump team Blasted email access

President Trump on Sunday blasted special counsel Robert Mueller for obtaining "unauthorized" access to thousands of emails sent and received by his presidential transition team before the start of his administration.

“Not looking good, it’s not looking good,” Trump said on Sunday. “It’s quite sad to see that-- my people were very upset about it. I can’t imagine there’s anything on them, frankly, because, as we’ve said, there’s no collusion, no collusion whatsoever.”

The New York Times reported that Mueller’s office issued a statement on Sunday defending how it obtained the information.

“When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process,” said Peter Carr, a spokesman said.

Mueller's investigators obtained the emails from the General Services Administration, a federal agency that stored the material, rather than request them from Trump's still-existing transition group, Trump for America, Kory Langhofer, the general counsel for the transition group, said in a letter sent to two congressional committees.

Langhofer said in his letter to two congressional committees that the GSA had improperly provided the transition records to Mueller's team, which he said has been "actively using" the emails. In the letter to the Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and the Senate Homeland Security committees, Langhofer contends that the disclosure by GSA was "unauthorized," and it considers the documents private and privileged and not government property.

While conservatives have been critical of Mueller's probe of Russian activities during the 2016 campaign, Trump said Sunday afternoon that he has no plans to fire Mueller.

The documents were provided to Mueller's team by the GSA in September in response to requests from the FBI, but the transition team didn't learn about it until last week, Langhofer said.

The tens of thousands of emails in question pertain to 13 senior Trump transition officials.

Many of the emails that Mueller's investigators have now included national security discussions about possible Trump international aims as well as candid assessments of candidates for top government posts, said those familiar with the transition. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the records' sensitivity.

Langhofer also said that a GSA official appointed by Trump in May had assured the transition in June that any request for records from Mueller's office would be referred to the transition's attorneys. According to Langhofer, the assurance was made by then-GSA General Counsel Richard Beckler, who was hospitalized in August and has since died. A copy of the letter was obtained by the AP.

But late Saturday, another GSA official present for the conversation told Buzzfeed News that there was nothing improper about the disclosure of the emails to Mueller's team. The GSA has provided office space and other aid to presidential transitions in recent years and typically houses electronic transition records in its computer system.

GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt, who Langhofer blames along with other GSA career staff for providing the transition documents to the FBI, told Buzzfeed that Beckler didn't make a commitment to the transition team that requests from law enforcement for materials would be routed through transition lawyers.

Transition officials signed agreements that warn them that materials kept on the government servers are subject to monitoring and auditing, Loewentritt told Buzzfeed, and there's no expectation of privacy.

In a statement, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, dismissed the transition's arguments that GSA shouldn't have turned over the records to Mueller.

Among the officials who used transition email accounts was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements to FBI agents in January and is cooperating with Mueller's investigation. Trump fired Flynn in February for misleading senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Trump transition lawyer: Mueller improperly obtained documents in Russia probe

Exclusive— A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team is accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office of inappropriately obtaining transition documents as part of its Russia probe, including confidential attorney-client communications, privileged communications and thousands of emails without their knowledge.

In a letter obtained by Fox News and sent to House and Senate committees on Saturday, the transition team’s attorney alleges “unlawful conduct” by the career staff at the General Services Administration (GSA) in handing over transition documents to the special counsel’s office.

Kory Langhofer, the counsel to Trump for America (TFA), argues the GSA “did not own or control the records in question” and the release of documents could be a violation of the Fourth Amendment – which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Langhofer wrote in Saturday's letter that the GSA handed over “tens of thousands of emails” to Mueller's probe without "any notice" to the transition.

The attorney said they discovered the “unauthorized disclosures” by the GSA on Dec. 12 and 13 and raised concerns with the special counsel’s office. The Associated Press reported that the GSA turned over a flash drive containing tens of thousands of records on Sept. 1 after receiving requests from Mueller's office in late August.

Those records included emails sent and received by 13 senior Trump transition officials. Among the officials who used transition email accounts was former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements to FBI agents in January and is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation.

“We understand that the special counsel’s office has subsequently made extensive use of the materials it obtained from the GSA, including materials that are susceptible to privilege claims," Langhofer wrote. He added that some of the records obtained by the special counsel’s office from the GSA “have been leaked to the press by unknown persons.”

The transition attorney said the special counsel's office also received laptops, cell phones and at least one iPad from the GSA.

Trump for America is the nonprofit organization that facilitated the transition between former President Barack Obama to President Trump.

The GSA, an agency of the United States government, provided the transition team with office space and hosted its email servers.

“When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process,” Peter Carr, spokesman for the special counsel’s office, told Fox News.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News Saturday evening, GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt denied Langhofer's claim that then-GSA General Counsel Richard Beckler had promised that any requests for transition team records would be "routed to legal counsel for [Trump for America]."

"Beckler never made that commitment," said Loewentritt, who added that transition team members were warned that information "would not be held back in any law enforcement" investigation and that "no expectation of privacy can be assumed." (Longhofer's letter notes that Beckler "was hospitalized and incapacitated in August." He died the following month.)

Loewentritt also told BuzzFeed that the GSA suggested that Mueller's team issue a warrant or subpoena for the transition team materials, but the special prosecutor's office decided a letter requesting the materials would suffice.

“We continue to cooperate fully with the special counsel and expect this process to wrap up soon,” Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Saturday.

In his letter, Langhofer argued the GSA's actions “impair the ability of future presidential transition teams to candidly discuss policy and internal matters that benefit the country as a whole."

Langhofer requests in the letter that Congress “act immediately to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies, particularly in the context of sensitive investigations intersecting with political motives.”

The letter was sent to the Senate Homeland Security and House Oversight Committees.

The committees did not immediately return a request for comment.