WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly accused special counsel Robert Mueller of conducting a "witch hunt" against him, ratcheted up his attacks on Wednesday, alleging without evidence that Mueller had committed a crime by having "terminated" texts between FBI officials who privately derided him.

During an interview with Fox Business Network, Trump claimed the public had not seen some communications between former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page "because Mueller terminated them illegally. He terminated the emails, he terminated all the stuff between Strzok and Page."

"And that's illegal," he said. "That's a crime."

But a December report from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General on the recovery of texts messages from Strzok and Page's devices did not determine that any crime had been committed, nor did it mention that Mueller was in any way involved in the loss of any exchanges between them.

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Strzok and Page both worked on the FBI's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, and joined Mueller's staff after he was appointed as special counsel in 2017. Page left after her 45-day temporary assignment ended, while Strzok was removed when Mueller was informed that the FBI agent and Page had exchanged texts hostile to Trump and in support of his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. Some of the messages described Trump as an "idiot" and "loathsome."

The inspector general was unable to review any communications between Strzok and Page on the iPhones they were assigned during their time working for the special counsel's office because the phones were returned to their factory settings when they were returned, which was done as a matter of routine.

Texts between Strzok and Page between Dec. 15, 2017 and May 17, 2017, were lost because of a glitch in the FBI's data collection system, but the inspector general was able to recover about 10,000 texts from each their devices. The report said there was no evidence that Strzok and Page had "attempted to circumvent the FBI's text message collection capabilities.

Trump accusation of illegal activity came the day after it was announced that Mueller will give public testimony before a congressional committee on July 17 about his report into Russia's "sweeping and systemic" campaign to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

"Presidential Harassment!" Trump tweeted Tuesday in response to the news of Mueller's testimony.

"It never ends," Trump lamented on Monday, repeating his previously expressed belief that "Mueller that obviously was not a Trump fan" and that he had hired "18 people that hated Donald Trump" to help conduct the investigation.

Trump, who admitted last week he had not read the full report, repeated his mantra that Mueller report found no "collusion" and "no obstruction whatsoever."

Although Mueller's report "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign," it "did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

Mueller did not bring charges against the president, but – far from finding "no obstruction whatsoever" – his report outlined several potential instances of potential obstruction and said, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."