An examination of the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation will “find nothing” on the White House, according former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes.
Attorney General William Barr is “reviewing the conduct” of the FBI’s initial investigation into the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, following allegations by GOP lawmakers that there was a politically motivated effort to undermine President Trump. Some of Trump’s staunchest allies have speculated that former President Barack Obama himself was personally involved in some sort of “deep state” effort to hinder his successor, but Rhodes dismissed this notion outright.
“Look. I can’t be clear enough about this. We didn’t know that there was an FBI investigation of Trump. I didn’t. And President Obama didn’t,” Rhodes said in an interview that was published Friday on PJ Media.
“We actually abided by the firewalls between — if there were any investigations that took place, those were decisions that were made in the Justice Department and in the FBI, not the White House,” he added. “They will find nothing that suggests there was any political White House involvement in any of that.”
Rhodes said he personally learned of the investigation from a Washington Post report.
Republican investigators have long questioned if there was some secret effort by the White House to offer direction to the FBI. In seeking more information last year, Sen. Chuck Grassley, then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, cited a particular text message to the Justice Department between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that said the “White House is running this.” referring to an unspecified investigation.
Rhodes, who served as Obama’s deputy national security adviser, also distanced the Obama White House from the infamous Trump dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
“We had nothing to do with that,” he said, noting that he hadn’t learned of it until January 2017 — when Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were briefed on its unsubstantiated claims that Russia had compromising information on Trump.
Republicans have alleged the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to obtain warrants to spy on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page by using the dossier without mentioning its Democratic benefactors and Steele’s anti-Trump bias.
Beyond Barr’s investigation, the Justice Department inspector general is looking into possible surveillance abuse, as is Lindsey Graham, who is now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Rhodes insisted their efforts are wasted.
“I’m not an investigator. I haven’t even read this whole dossier. I mean, you guys are all fixated on this. Like, have fun. Have your witch hunt. Like, we did not initiate this. You know this to be true! So I don’t know why you’re asking me these questions,” he said.
