Former CIA Director John Brennan, a critic of President Trump and persistent purveyor of Trump-Russia conspiracy claims, once dismissed the Senate Intelligence Committee’s finding no evidence of collusion in favor of special counsel Robert Mueller.
What Brennan said two months ago bears renewed significance in light of the redacted release of Mueller’s report, which found no collusion.
After it was revealed in February the Senate intelligence panel announced it had found no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, Brennan appeared on MSNBC and said the committee’s findings were insignificant to whatever Mueller might find.
“I know the Senate Intelligence Committee came out and said they found no direct evidence of criminal conspiracy, but that’s not the Senate Intelligence Committee’s remit, it is the FBI and the special counsel’s team to do the criminal investigation,” Brennan said.
John Brennan: Senate investigators are wrong, Trump’s collusion with Russia “is quite obvious and apparent.” pic.twitter.com/WKofCHW2G2
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) April 18, 2019
He said during the same interview that he believed evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia was clear.
“It was collusion in plain sight,” Brennan said. “ … That collusion, I think, is quite obvious and apparent; what the Mueller team is doing is trying to determine whether or not the engagement rises to the level of criminal conspiracy, whether they violated the law.”
Mueller’s full report was released Thursday in redacted form and showed Trump did not collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Mueller also made no determination on whether Trump obstructed justice, although Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that he did not.
Brennan called into MSNBC on Thursday to react to the Mueller report.
“[The] amount of information that relates to collusion and obstruction activity is really quite extensive in this report. I think by anyone’s account, you can identify all the things that were going on between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and interactions and meetings with Russians. It was quite — quite, I think, enlightening from the standpoint of the things that we’ve seen in press reports by the special counsel’s report,” Brennan said.
“[The] extent and nature of what I would say are the very egregious conduct of Donald Trump that’s included in the report. Especially on the obstruction side,” he added. “This conduct was unethical, unprincipled, dishonest and I would say it really does back up criminal corruption, trying to get people to mislead and not tell the truth for a very legitimate ongoing law enforcement investigation.”
