On Monday morning, former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were revealed to be the first people charged in the ongoing Russian investigation. In their defense, the president took out his frustrations on Twitter.

Trump and Russia

From the early days of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has been fighting off allegations that he and his campaign had been in cahoots with Russia. From defending Russian President Vladimir Putin to refusing to release his tax returns, the former host of "The Apprentice" continued to claim his innocence, writing off the allegations as nothing more than propaganda from the media and Democrats.

Fast forward to his upset win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the allegations and scandal only increased, with several well-respected news outlets and government reports concluding that Russia hacked the election, and did so with a Trump victory in mind. As expected, the White House has stuck with their story, blaming the "fake news" media for pushing the story, while doing everything they can to deflect the reports of collusion back onto the Clinton campaign and Obama administration. Despite this, news broke over the weekend that the first charges in the current investigation into Russia, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, were filed. On Monday it was revealed that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were the intended targets and both were charged with conspiracy against the United States.

As seen on his Twitter account on October 30, Trump was in full-on defense mode.

Taking to his Twitter account on Monday morning, Donald Trump wasted no time fighting back against the Mueller investigation charges.

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign," Trump tweeted, before adding, "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" In a follow-up tweet, Trump added, "There is NO COLLUSION!"

Trump and Obama

Prior to Donald Trump's defense of Paul Manafort, the commander in chief used his social media platform to hit back at the Democrats over their own alleged collusion with Russia.

"Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS," Trump posted, while adding, "The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!"

Fact-check

Not long after Donald Trump sent out his tweets, Jeffrey Toobin, the legal analyst on CNN, debunked the president's remarks that Paul Manafort had been involved with Russia before joining his campaign. "It's just not true," Toobin said. "You only have to read the indictment to see that it says the conspiracy goes during the time when Manafort and Gates were both working for the Trump campaign," he added.

Despite the evidence against him, Donald Trump appears unwilling to come clean about either his knowledge or of those who worked for his campaign or administration in regards to collusion with Russia. As of press time, the White House has not responded further to the news.
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