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Friday, 26 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
WASHINGTON (Reuters): US House Intelligence Committee Democrats have drafted their own “memo” about the investigation of Russia and the 2016 US election, after calls for the release of a Republican memo critical of a special counsel’s criminal probe, the panel’s ranking Democrat said on Wednesday.
Amid growing partisan rancor over the investigation of possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow, many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have been clamouring for the release of a classified memorandum commissioned by Republicans, which they say shows anti-Trump bias at the US Department of Justice. Democrats have criticised that memo as “highly misleading” talking points intended to undermine the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Trump and his associates. They accused Republicans of inappropriately releasing classified information by allowing every House of Representatives member to read it.
Moscow denies attempting to influence the presidential election. Trump denies any collusion.
“Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ,” Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat, said in a statement. The dispute has fuelled doubts about whether the House panel’s investigation has become too politicised to produce a credible report. House Intelligence is one of three congressional committees looking into the issue, along with the Senate Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Schiff said panel Democrats will ask that their memorandum be made available for review by all House members on Monday at the committee’s normally scheduled meeting.
A spokesman for Representative Devin Nunes, the panel’s Republican chairman, who commissioned the Republican memo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A top Justice Department official told Nunes in a letter on Wednesday that allegations of impropriety at the department are unfounded, according to a senior US official.
WASHINGTON (Reuters): President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of an interview with Mueller, a former FBI director. “I would do it under oath.”
Although Trump has pledged cooperation with Mueller’s probe before, Trump made his assertion as the White House and allies in Congress have stepped up attacks on the investigation’s credibility and Trump himself has hedged on whether he would answer questions.
Trump’s attorneys have been talking to Mueller’s team about an interview, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. “I would like to do it as soon as possible,” Trump said.
Trump said, however, that setting a date certain for an interview would be “subject to my lawyers and all of that.” Asked whether he thought Mueller would treat him fairly, Trump replied: “We’re going to find out.”
Ty Cobb, the lawyer in charge of the White House response to Mueller’s probe, said in a statement that Trump was speaking hurriedly to reporters before departing on his trip to Davos, Switzerland. Cobb said Trump emphasised that he remained committed to cooperating with the investigation and looked forward to speaking with Mueller.
Cobb said Mueller’s team and Trump’s personal lawyers were working out the arrangements for a meeting.In his remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Trump repeated past statements that there was no collusion between the campaign and Russia and “there’s no obstruction whatsoever.” The Kremlin has denied conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election campaign using hacking and propaganda to try to tilt the race in Trump’s favour.
Trump on Wednesday denied a Washington Post report that last year he had asked then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe whom he had voted for in 2016, which according to reports, left McCabe concerned about civil servants being interrogated about their political leanings.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think I did. I don’t know what’s the big deal with that, because I would ask you,” Trump said to reporters.
