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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday blasted the special counsel team, calling it a "disgrace" to the country in an early Twitter post and renewed previous attacks on the investigation, calling it, "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!

The fresh barrage comes after Trump spent the last three days meeting with his personal legal team, crafting answers to written questions from the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

Trump wrote: "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don't care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won't even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!"

In recent days, Trump had been relatively quiet about the investigation. He returned Sunday from a trip to Paris to face criticism for his decision to skip a solemn visit to an American cemetery in France, part of events to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.

When he returned to Washington, Trump stepped into closed-door sessions with his personal lawyers and worked on drafting written answers to questions from the Mueller team, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and any possible ties to the Trump campaign. The president's legal team and aides have pleaded with him for months to avoid writing Twitter posts about Mueller. But by Thursday morning, the president returned to attacking the inquiry and Mueller.

Though Trump briefly restrained himself from publicly attacking Mueller, the president had complained privately about what he believes to be Mueller's conflicts of interest, even as the Justice Department reviewed the accusations and found no issues.

Trump's lawyers believe that the special counsel investigation is winding down, and they finally agreed to answer written questions after months of back-and-forth with the Mueller team. Mueller has been asking to interview the president for nearly a year.

Mueller wants to ask the president questions about whether there was any obstruction of justice during the course of the investigation, which began late in the Obama administration. Mueller wants to ask the president about any possible coordination with Russia during the election campaign, as well.