President Trump demurred Wednesday when asked if he was moving to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, even as he called the investigation into alleged ties between the Trump Organization and Russian officials a “hoax.” Trump was speaking in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

President Donald Trump: “This is a hoax. As far as the investigation, nobody has ever been more transparent than I have, instructed our lawyers—’Be totally transparent.’ I believe we’ve given them 1.4 million pages of documents, if you can believe this, and haven’t used—that I know of, or for the most part—presidential powers or privilege. So, we are hopefully coming to the end. It is a bad thing for our country, very, very bad thing for our country. But there has been no collusion.”

Trump’s comments came as Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would “move ahead” with hearings on bipartisan legislation that would protect special counsel Mueller. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed he will not bring the measure to a vote in the full Senate.