President Trump’s claim the Obama administration wiretapped his campaign headquarters last fall will be part of the House and Senate intelligence committees’ investigations into Russia’s interference during the election.
“One of the focus points of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation is the U.S. government’s response to actions taken by Russian intelligence agents during the presidential campaign,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes in a statement Sunday. “As such, the committee will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates, and we will continue to investigate this issue if the evidence warrants it.”
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, an intelligence panel member, told Fox News host Chris Wallace the Senate would investigate too.
“As part of our inquiry, we are going to review allegations of any kind of improper contacts between Russian officials and campaign officials or other American citizens, and I’m sure that we will be reviewing any allegations such as this,” “I think all these matters will be part of our inquiry.
Cotton said he has “seen no evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year’s election, despite intelligence reports alleging that activity.
Cotton defended Trump’s treatment of Russia, calling it harsher than his predecessor’s based on foreign policies that have already implemented.
Following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusing himself from campaign- or election-related probes, Cotton still stood by a previous statement that his former colleague should have to step aside to allow someone else to oversee the investigation.
Cotton added that he does not believe any additional investigation into Russia-Trump campaign contacts would be worthwhile because the Senate intelligence committee is looking into the matter.
“We’ve made the decisions — or we’ve made the agreements with the intelligence community to review the documents,” he said. “If you started over with a new commission or new committee, that could take months. I think it’s in the best interest of the American people if we conduct our view as quickly as possible and make as much of our conclusions as public as possible.”
