Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo grilled South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham about compelling witnesses to testify about the Russia investigation.
Following the release of documents related to the Michael Flynn case, Bartiromo reminded Graham on Sunday that he has repeatedly assured her that the Senate Judiciary Committee would seek testimony from current and former Justice Department and FBI officials as she committed to reporting on a “cabal” that allegedly tried to undermine President Trump. She asserted that Graham has yet to make good on his promises, to which the senator stressed that he doesn’t want to interfere in the Justice Department’s criminal inquiry of the matter.
“When I first came on the scene and said, look, this is a coup to take down Donald Trump, I got slammed,” Bartiromo said on her weekend Fox News show, Sunday Morning Futures. “Everybody out there was just going on this, you know, Russia collusion witch-hunt, which was ridiculous.”
She went over instances dating back more than a year in which she said Graham vowed to call and subpoena witnesses, — such as former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — promised a “deep dive” into alleged surveillance abuse, and pledged to put a stop to any future misconduct.
“You are the only one with subpoena power right now in the Republican Party,” Bartiromo said, adding, “We need you to call these individuals down to testify as witnesses. People want you to move on this, senator. Are you going to do it?”
Graham responded in the affirmative but couched that assurance by saying timing is a factor.
“Yes, but I have told you, and I will tell you again, I’m not going to interfere in an ongoing criminal matter,” he said. “This is a rule of law nation. I’m a politician. My goal is to write a report of how it got off the rails.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman further promised he will carry out his oversight role the “right” way.
“I’m not going to jump in the middle of this case. But when it’s over, we’re going to find out why the Mueller investigation lasted two years. We’re going to find out what kind of FBI shop was run out of the seventh floor. We’re going to find out how you could issue warrants against Carter Page when the Russian sub-source told the FBI in January of 2017 it’s all a bunch of garbage,” he said.
He concluded by drawing the difference between his work and that of U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was hand-picked by Attorney General William Barr to conduct a review into possible misconduct during the Trump-Russia investigation.
“Durham is a prosecutor. I’m an oversight guy,” he said. “But I’m not going to interfere — interfere in an ongoing criminal matter, period.”
While there has been some hesitation to call witnesses, Graham made moves last month in his investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators. The Senate Judiciary Committee released a trove of declassified documents related to the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia, including new details about the secret surveillance of members on the then-candidate’s team. Graham then asked the Justice Department to hand over documents that he said “undercut” one of the sources for British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier.
