California Rep. Adam Schiff said he doesn’t believe the indictment handed down on Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller absolves President Trump and his campaign of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election.
Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the indictment, which said no member of the Trump campaign knowingly worked with a Russian firm running an influence campaign on the presidential election, only covered one part of Russia’s interference in the election. He said Mueller’s investigation could still turn up collusion.
“Of course not, but this is a president who claims vindication any time someone sneezes,” Schiff said.
“What this indictment sets out is information about only one element of the Russia active measures campaign that involving their use of social media to influence attitudes, to motivate people to protest, to essentially infiltrate our political system through the cyber sphere. It doesn’t contain any of the allegations that are really most known to the public, and that is the Russian hacking into the democratic institutions, the Russian publishing of stolen information.”
Trump tweeted multiple times Sunday morning that he continues to believe the allegations his campaign colluded with the Russian government are a “hoax.” Trump also tweeted Russia succeeded in its attempt to sow discord in the U.S. and Russians are “laughing their asses off” at America.
Trump also thanked Schiff for blaming former President Barack Obama for not doing more to prevent Russia from interfering in the election.
