President Donald Trump is celebrating after Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) claimed that he hasn’t seen any evidence of collusion with Russia, a claim CNN legal analysts ripped on Wednesday for being premature as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues.
Once again, Trump proclaimed vindication on Twitter after Burr shared his personal conclusion with reporters this week even though ranking Democratic Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) disagrees because the committee’s investigation isn’t actually over yet.
The Senate Intelligence Committee: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2019
Warner pointed out that there are still witnesses coming back to testify, including Michael Cohen.
Former federal prosecutor Laura Coates and former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram both agreed that Burr is jumping the gun.
Burr is “prejudging something that isn’t done,” Milgram warned, observing that there is probably evidence that Burr doesn’t agree with so he’s disregarding it for political reasons.
Coates chimed in by reminding the panel that the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation is not the same as Mueller’s investigation, which has more access to evidence and witnesses that Burr has likely not pursued. After all, Burr has resisted investigating collusion and as the chair of the committee can prevent certain witnesses from being subpoenaed and certain evidence from being gathered.
“Remember, the congressional oversight role is really a parallel investigation,” she said. “It’s not to supplement or collaborate with Mueller. However, as their congressional oversight function, they can look at evidence that’s out there in the public record, including public filings, including, for example, the inadvertent disclosure that Manafort was sneaking polling data to somebody linked to the Kremlin. The one thing I will say is Burr going out and saying there’s no collusion felt to me like he was prejudging the end of the investigation. And Michael Cohen is supposed to go back before his committee. It’s a little bit strange to say, ‘Come back and testify but I’ve already decided there’s nothing here.’”
“To conclude nothing is an error,” she concluded.
Here’s the video via YouTube.
The Mueller investigation is far more comprehensive and non-partisan than the Senate Intelligence Committee probe led by a Republican majority who are hell bent on protecting Trump instead of finding the truth. Therefore, Trump is not out of the woods and the results of the Mueller probe should be released in full to the public. And Warner says he can’t wait for Trump’s Twitter reaction.
Looking forward to the tweets when Senate Intel releases its final report to the public. Likewise for the Mueller report. I’m sure in the interest of transparency, the President will want to make that public as well. https://t.co/YxCBsnyQz0
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) February 8, 2019
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