With pardons, Trump seeks to erase stain of Russia probe

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's pardons of five people from his 2016 election campaign caps his effort to bleach out the stain on his tenure of the Russia interference investigation. The US leader never accepted the conclusions of US intelligence and special counsel Robert Mueller that Moscow intervened in the election four years ago to aid his upset victory, calling it a "hoax" and "fake news." He has also claimed that his predecessor Barack Obama and a so-called "deep state" of anti-Trump officials conspired with the investigation to destroy his presidency from the beginning.   T...