Trump sought to have special counsel removed: Mueller report

US President Donald Trump sought to have special counsel Robert Mueller removed nearly two years ago from the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Mueller report.

Trump's efforts to remove the special counsel followed press reports that the president was under investigation for obstruction of justice, the report said.

It said that on June 17, 2017 Trump called White House counsel Don McGahn at home "and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed."

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"McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre," the report said.

The Saturday Night Massacre refers to an effort by US president Richard Nixon in 1973 to thwart the Watergate investigation.