House Intel Member: No Evidence Trump Colluded with Russia... Can't Say the Same for Hillary
As some Republicans point to a recently released congressional memo as evidence that federal investigators are pursuing a partisan probe of President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russian in the 2016 election, at least one lawmaker believes the wrong candidate is being investigated.
U.S. Rep. Peter King, who serves on the bipartisan House Intelligence Committee, said he has seen no evidence that Trump colluded with Russian agents to impact the outcome of his race against Hillary Clinton, according to the Washington Examiner.
The New York Republican made the comments during a recent interview with New York City radio talk show “The Cats Roundtable.”
As part of a conversation about the Department of Justice probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, King insisted that he has seen more suspicious Russia-related activity associated with the Clinton campaign despite the deep investigation into Trump.
“I’ve been involved with this now for the last 18 months and I have not seen one bit of evidence of any collusion at all between the Trump campaign and Russia,” he said.
King cited what he deemed potentially compromising speaking fees Clinton received from Russia through her family’s charitable organization and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as evidence that her campaign was more likely than Trump’s to have colluded.
“There was more possibility of the Russians being involved in the Hillary Clinton campaign,” he said. “So many Russians had paid money to Bill Clinton and also the Clinton Foundation.”
He also claimed the memo released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes backs up his case.
The controversial four-page document alleges the FBI improperly used a partisan opposition-research dossier to secure a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
According to King, the bureau examined the memo “line by line” and “did not find one factual error.”
The only dispute the FBI had, he stated, was with the memo’s conclusion, which he said makes sense given that the “conclusion is critical of high-ranking people in the FBI.”
King has made similar arguments in several other recent media appearances, including a recent Fox News Channel interview.
After Trump declared Saturday in a tweet that the memo “totally vindicates” him, however, many fellow Republicans have weighed in this week to tamp down such expectations.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee are working to secure the release of their own memo, which they say will add critical context to the contents of the Nunes document.
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