'Conspiracy not collusion main issue in Trump-Mueller investigation'

A former Watergate prosecutor, Nick Ackerman, has stated that the major issue in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was the possibility that the Trump campaign conspired to steal emails from top figures in the Democratic party rather than its collusion with Russia.

"I think the big enchilada here is the conspiracy to break into the Democratic National Committee in violation of the federal computer crime law and to use those emails to help Donald Trump get elected," the Hill reported Ackerman, as saying on MSNBC.

In 2016, the US intelligence community evaluated that Russia was behind a cyber breach at the DNC which resulted in damaging emails being leaked to the public domain, the report said.

Mueller and his team are investigating the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.

Dubbing Mueller's investigation as "witch hunt", United States President Trump and his aides have consistently denied allegations of collusion with Russia.

Earlier, during an interview with the New York Times, Trump said he thought special counsel Robert Mueller was "going to be fair" in his investigation into possible collusion between his team and Russian officials.

The investigation "makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position. So the sooner it's worked out, the better it is for the country," he added.