--- title: Donald Trump: Robert Mueller Russia Probe Will Be Fair description: President Trump said Special Counsel Robert Mueller is "going to be fair" in investigating collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia. canonical: https://time.com/5081788/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-collusion/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-29T03:48:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:18:01.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says Robert Mueller Will Treat Him Fairly og:description: Some Republicans in Congress have accused Mueller's team of anti-Trump bias og:url: https://time.com/5081788/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-collusion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b361c96c28c237c/6988f6a3cf40a89e31c4ac44/donald-trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Departs White House For Travel To Florida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says Robert Mueller Will Treat Him Fairly twitter:description: Some Republicans in Congress have accused Mueller's team of anti-Trump bias twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b361c96c28c237c/6988f6a3cf40a89e31c4ac44/donald-trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He Believes Robert Mueller's Russia Investigation Will 'Be Fair' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks [Watch (HLS stream): 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KXGhnVO8.m3u8) (3:29)  _Published 2017-11-08. 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks_ by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Dec 29, 2017 3:48 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump walks out of the Oval Office before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump walks out of the Oval Office before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Dec 29, 2017 3:48 AM UTC President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believes he will be fairly treated in a special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, but said he did not know how long the probe would last. The federal investigation has hung over Trump’s White House since he took office almost a year ago, and some Trump allies have in recent weeks accused the team of Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller of being biased against the Republican president. But in an interview with the New York _Times_, Trump appeared to shrug off concerns about the investigation, which was prompted by U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda. “There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair,” Trump said in what the Times described as a 30-minute impromptu interview at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Mueller has charged four Trump associates in his investigation. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said this month that he was not aware of any impropriety by Mueller’s team. Trump’s lawyers have been saying for weeks that they had expected the Mueller investigation to wrap up quickly, possibly by the end of 2017\. Mueller has not commented on how long it will last. Trump told the Times that he did not know how long the investigation would take. “Timing-wise, I can’t tell you. I just don’t know,” he said. Trump said he thought a prolonged probe “makes the country look bad” but said it has energized his core supporters. “What it’s done is, it’s really angered the base and made the base stronger. My base is strong than it’s ever been,” he said. ## BREAK FROM GOLF The interview was a rare break in Trump’s Christmas vacation in Florida. He has golfed each day aside from Christmas Day, and mainly kept a low profile, apart from the occasional flurry of tweets. He spent one day golfing with Republican Senator David Perdue from Georgia, who has pushed legislation to cap immigration numbers, and had dinner on Thursday with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, an international trade hawk. Trump told the Times he hoped to work with Democrats in the U.S. Congress on a spending plan to fix roads and other infrastructure, and on protections for a group of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Trump spoke about trade issues, saying he had backed off his hard line on Chinese trade practices in the hope that Beijing would do more to pressure North Korea to end its nuclear and missile testing program. He said he had been disappointed in the results. He also complained about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which his administration is attempting to renegotiate in talks with Mexico and Canada. Trump said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had played down the importance of Canadian oil and lumber exports to the United States when looking at the balance of trade between the two countries. “If I don’t make the right deal, I’ll terminate NAFTA in two seconds. 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