U.S. President Donald Trump says Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has failed to find evidence that he colluded with Russia during his 2016 election campaign.
"After two years and millions of pages of documents (and a cost of over $30 million) no collusion!" Trump said in a tweet on December 8.
The comments come a day after U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to sentence Trump's longtime personal lawyer to a "substantial” prison term after he admitted to paying a porn actress money to keep her from embarrassing Trump during the 2016 election.
Trump did not mention that in their filings, prosecutors also detailed a previously unknown attempt by a Russian to help his 2016 presidential election campaign.
Meanwhile, Mueller asked a judge for no additional prison time for Michael Cohen on a separate set of charges that said Cohen lied about potential Moscow real estate development that could have brought Trump’s business "hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources."
The charges Cohen faced from Manhattan federal prosecutors were separate from, but grew out of, Mueller's investigation into Trump associates and their interactions with Russian officials.
Cohen, who has been cooperating with Mueller, pleaded guilty to charges including tax, bank, and campaign-finance fraud in August.
Cohen worked for years for Trump's business organization, serving as a "fixer," to help out with business deals and other matters.
Some of the charges Cohen faced stem from his efforts to prevent at least two women from going public with their stories of having affairs with Trump, something that Trump has denied repeatedly.
Some of the money that was paid to the women allegedly came from shell corporations that Cohen set up, and with money that was allegedly provided by Trump.
Investigators have been looking at whether the money Trump allegedly paid could constitute a contribution to his election effort, and whether it should have been disclosed under federal election law.
Mueller is investigating whether there was collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies charge mounted an influence operation to sway the vote to Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Russia denies interfering in the election to help Trump.