--- title: Donald Trump Blasts Obstruction of Justice Probe Report description: President Donald Trump fought back on Twitter Thursday morning against reports that he was being investigated for obstructing justice canonical: https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-15T12:27:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:09:57.870Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Slams Report of Obstruction of Justice Investigation og:description: Trump called it a "phony story" og:url: https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f0ccc83f85665ed/6988d180cf40a8dbb8c481b0/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GOP Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Gives Foreign Policy Address In DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Slams Report of Obstruction of Justice Investigation twitter:description: Trump called it a "phony story" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f0ccc83f85665ed/6988d180cf40a8dbb8c481b0/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Slams Report of Obstruction of Justice Probe by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 15, 2017 12:27 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech about his vision for foreign policy at the Mayflower Hotel April 27, 2016 in Washington, DC. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech about his vision for foreign policy at the Mayflower Hotel April 27, 2016 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 15, 2017 12:27 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4819646/donald-trump-birthday-jokes-stephen-colbert/) fought back on Twitter early Thursday morning against a report that the [special counsel](http://time.com/4817327/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-investigation-political/?xid=homepage) investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election was investigating him for obstruction of justice. “They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice,” Trump tweeted early Thursday morning. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875305788708974592) Citing five people briefed on the subject, [the Washington _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-is-investigating-trump-for-possible-obstruction-of-justice/2017/06/14/9ce02506-5131-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.c4600393c7b2) Wednesday evening that Special Counsel [Robert Mueller](http://time.com/4816360/paul-ryan-donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation/?xid=homepage) expanded his investigation to include whether Trump has obstructed justice. Mueller took over the investigation after former FBI Director James Comey was fired. At his testimony in front of Congress last week, Comey said he believed Trump fired him as a result of how he was handling the Russia probe. A spokesman for Trump’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, questioned the legality of leaking information on the investigation [in an interview with TIME](http://time.com/4819320/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-obstruction-of-justice/?xid=homepage), but did not deny the report. [Obstruction of justice](http://time.com/4781655/donald-trump-james-comey-michael-flynn-obstruction-of-justice/) is defined as someone who intentionally tampers with or intervenes with an ongoing investigation. At Comey’s testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, the former FBI director said Trump had asked him to stop investigating former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. Comey did not say whether he thought Trump’s actions constituted an obstruction of justice, but [said he was “sure”](http://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/?iid=sr-link2) Mueller would investigate it. Trump continued on Twitter that people “are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history” — a claim he has made in the past. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875321478849363968) Trump turned 71 years old on Wednesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/"},"headline":"President Trump Slams Report of Obstruction of Justice Probe","datePublished":"2017-06-15T12:27:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:09:57.870Z","description":"Trump called it a \"phony story\"","url":"https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f0ccc83f85665ed/6988d180cf40a8dbb8c481b0/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f0ccc83f85665ed/6988d180cf40a8dbb8c481b0/donald-trump3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Gives Foreign Policy Address In DC","caption":"GOP Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Gives Foreign Policy Address In DC","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4819677/donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice-twitter/","name":"President Trump Slams Report of Obstruction of Justice Probe"}}]}] ```