The “original purpose” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian collusion probe has “failed miserably,” former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova said Wednesday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

Mueller (pictured above left), who’s been leading the investigation into allegations of collusion between Trump 2016 campaign officials and Russia since May 2017, is now winding down the probe. President Donald Trump formally submitted written answers to Mueller’s questions last week after months of wrangling.

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Though the original purpose of Mueller’s probe was to discern whether Trump or any of his campaign officials colluded with Russians to sway the results of the 2016 presidential election in his favor against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the investigation has now focused on allegations of obstruction of justice by Trump and perjury by others.

Conservative author Jerome Corsi told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night that Mueller’s team accused him of lying to them under oath about email correspondences with former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone because he “couldn’t give them what they wanted” to incriminate Trump.

Corsi revealed Monday he would reject the Mueller team’s plea deal stipulating that he admit to perjury.

Corsi and Stone emailed about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s intentions to release emails from former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump also told The New York Post on Wednesday that a pardon for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort — whom Mueller’s team also has accused of lying to them — is not “not off the table,” although he insisted he hasn’t discussed a pardon.

“The original purpose of the investigation was Russian collusion. That’s failed miserably. There’s no evidence of it.”

“The president is tweaking and trolling people and trying to get, you know, just get a rise out of people. That’s what he does. It’s part of his schtick,” diGenova told host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night on the topic of a possible pardon.

“But the thing to me that’s fascinating is all of a sudden the entire investigation by Mueller is focusing on people who are lying,” diGenova said. “Why is that happening? The answer is very simple: The original purpose of the investigation was Russian collusion. That’s failed miserably. There’s no evidence of it.”

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So now Mueller is “charging people with lying so that he can say in his report, ‘I would have proved collusion but all these people lied and prevented me from doing it,'” diGenova speculated, saying that “this is the new narrative of Mueller” and the “new Russian collusion theme.”

Although many Democrats and mainstream media members practically hyperventilated over Trump’s talk of a potential Manafort pardon, former U.S. Secret Service agent and current conservative commentator Dan Bongino said on “The Ingraham Angle” that the presidential pardon is a constitutional power because of the separation of powers.

“The reason that was implemented was so the executive branch would have some check over what were perceived gross abuses of our system. The president can do that,” Bongino said.

Related: Trump Slams Mueller for ‘Conflicts of Interest’ — ‘NO Collusion,’ Says President

Furthermore, Bongino said that there is “no predicate crime here” and “there is zero evidence of collusion.”

“And if Mueller was really doing his job, which he’s not, he’d be investigating the real Russian collusion, which there’s actual evidence of, which is collusion between the Hillary team and Russians.”

Bongino was referring to the Clinton campaign’s use of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to peddle negative allegations against Trump from sources linked to Russian interests.

Fusion GPS used former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the information in what became known as the Steele dossier — which the FBI then used to obtain FISA warrants to spy on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

“This is all about failure. This investigation is a complete failure,” diGenova said. “The purpose was to investigate a conspiracy between the Trump campaign or the president and the Russians. There is absolutely no evidence of that in any of the cases that he has brought.”

“That is why [Mueller] is now focusing on these side characters to accuse theme of lying or perjury because his narrative is going to be, ‘I couldn’t prove collusion because they wouldn’t let me,'” diGenova added. “This is where we are. This is the pathetic state of Mueller’s handling of this. This is an embarrassment.”

Check out the video segment below: