Sen. Susan Collins doesn’t think special counsel Robert Mueller has strayed outside the constraints on his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and pointed to the case against Michael Cohen as proof.
“I believe he’s staying within the parameters. And the proof of that is when he came across the allegations against Mr. Cohen,” she said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“He did refer them back to the Justice Department and they’re now being handled by a U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. He didn’t keep those.”
Collins, R-Maine, was referring to the criminal investigation into Trump’s personal attorney, which is being handled by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Cohen is reportedly wrapped up in an investigation into corruption, but the exact nature of the investigation into him is unknown. Federal investigators executed a search warrant against him earlier this month at his home and office.
Cohen has spoken to the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which Collins is a member, and the Maine Republican couldn’t say too much about her impressions of him.
All she could say is she didn’t think Cohen was intimately involved with the Russians.
“That’s a very difficult question to answer. There’s been one interview of Michael Cohen. It has not been released to the public. I’m not at liberty to say what he said,” she said. “But let me just say that I don’t see him as being a central figure in this. The fact that the special counsel referred the allegations against Mr. Cohen back to the justice department and was referred to the U.S. Attorney suggests to me that it’s not intimately connected to the Russian probe.”
