There was nothing “unusual” about an email former national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself on President Trump’s Inauguration Day that claimed then-President Barack Obama wanted to be sure the Russia investigation was done “by the book,” according to a lawyer for Rice.
The email detailed a briefing Rice had attended that month with the intelligence community concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, with Obama, then-FBI Director James Comey, and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
Rice wrote that Obama “said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia” in regard to national security.
“There is nothing ‘unusual’ about the National Security Advisor memorializing an important discussion for the record,” Rice’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, said in a statement.
“The Obama White House was justifiably concerned about how comprehensive they should be in their briefings regarding Russia to members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. General Michael Flynn, given the concerning communications between him and Russian officials,” she added.
Flynn briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser, but resigned early last year after it was revealed he had misled the Trump administration about his contacts with the the former Russian ambassador to the U.S. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December and is now complying with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian interference investigation.
The letter from Rice’s lawyer came in response to a congressional inquiry about the email.
Earlier this month, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., deemed the Rice email “unusual” and pressed for answers. They were curious to see if the email was related to Rice’s involvement with the so-called “Trump dossier,” authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, containing salacious and unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia.
Ruemmler dismissed the notion that the meeting pertained to the dossier.
“The discussion that Ambassador Rice documented did not involve the so-called Steele dossier,” she said. “Any insinuation that Ambassador Rice’s actions in this matter were inappropriate is yet another attempt to distract and deflect from the importance of the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in America’s democracy.”
