A Republican Florida congressman encouraged his colleagues to investigate both retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn’s connections to Russia and the leaks from the intelligence community that brought him down.
Rep. Brian Mast said on CNN said Thursday the American people deserve both investigations, and his colleagues shouldn’t let partisan politics get in the way of that.
“It’s absolutely fair for people to ask questions, for people to expect that we go through the process of intelligence and oversight (committees) to look at all these issues and see what’s going on here,” Mast said.
Flynn resigned Monday after reports surfaced that the White House knew for weeks that he had not told Vice President Mike Pence the full truth about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. That information was leaked to the press from the intelligence community because Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak were reportedly monitored through regular intelligence gathering on the Russian ambassador.
However, Republicans have been concerned about the intelligence community releasing information to bring down someone in an administration who has feuded with the intelligence community for months. Mast said that’s a viable concern.
“That is an important part of it because that can undermine the internal workings of our national security, and that is very important,” he said.
But, Mast also encouraged President Trump to be a bit more conspicuous in what he wants to say publicly about the American relationship with Russia.
He pointed to President Obama’s infamous “red line” statement about the Syrian civil war that ended up haunting the Democrat’s final years in office after he backed away from that public statement. Mast encouraged Trump to keep more diplomatic conversations private.
“If he puts something out there that he can’t walk back from, that’s not what we’re looking for,” he said.
