Lawmaker: Trump tries to ‘distract’ from probe

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday accused the White House and Rep, Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, of attempting to “distract” from the congressional investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

However, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted Sunday that she’s taking a tough stance on Russia even as President Donald Trump is mired in controversy over the White House’s conduct in the investigation.

Last month, Nunes, R-Calif., made a point of going to the White House to brief President Donald Trump on intelligence he had viewed that, he said, showed that some Trump campaign officials had been caught up in the government’s surveillance of foreign nationals and that their identities had perhaps been improperly unmasked.

News reports later revealed,

however, that at least three senior White House officials were involved in handling the intelligence information that Nunes had received — prompting an outcry from Democrats, and even some Republicans, that Nunes had politicized his committee and was simply acting on behalf of the president to try to buttress Trump’s earlier claims, on Twitter, that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the election campaign.

So far, the White House has been unable to provide any evidence to support the president’s assertion.

Schiff, D-Calif., speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said that Nunes and the White House’s actions proved that they were trying to distract from the broader question of what role, if any, Russia had played in the U.S. election.

“It certainly is an attempt to distract and to hide the origin of the materials, to hide the White House hand,” Schiff said. “The question is, of course, why? And I think the answer to the question is this effort to point the Congress in other directions, basically say, ‘Don’t look at me, don’t look at Russia, there is nothing to see here.’ You know, I would tell people, whenever they see the president use the word ‘fake,’ it ought to set off alarm bells. And I think that is really what has gone on here.”

Schiff, who last week went to the White House to view the same intelligence files Nunes had originally seen, also disputed the administration’s claim, including from press secretary Sean Spicer, that the files were produced “in the ordinary course of business.”

“Well, the question for the White House and for Mr. Spicer is the ordinary course of whose business. Because, if these were produced either for or by the White House, then why all of the subterfuge? There’s nothing ordinary about the process that was used here at all.”

Schiff also said that he has a “very healthy skepticism” of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s offer to cooperate with congressional investigators in exchange for immunity.

“There is a lot we need to learn before entertaining anything like this,” Schiff said. “We don’t want to do anything that will interfere in any case that the Justice Department may decide to bring. We also have to determine whether he really can add value to our investigation, whether we need him to learn information we can’t learn from other sources. So, it’s very early, I think, even to be considering this.”

He also said he was not prepared to answer one of the central questions his committee is investigating: whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russians to damage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

“I don’t think we can say anything definitively at this point,” Schiff said. “We are still at the very early stage of the investigation. The only thing I can say is that it would be irresponsible for us not to get to the bottom of this.”

Meanwhile, Haley, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’ “Face the Nation,” was unequivocal about Russia’s meddling in last year’s election.

“Well, certainly, I think Russia was involved in the election,” she told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “There’s no question about that. And I think when they finish with all of this process, yes, they need to address Russia, they need to act, and they need to make sure they’re loud about it.

“We don’t want any country involved in our elections ever.”

In her appointment hearing in January, Haley said she had starkly different views from Trump, especially on Russia. Trump has said he respects Russian President Vladimir Putin and thinks the latter is a better leader than Obama.

Trump has called questions about apparent Russian tampering in the 2016 race “fake news” and blamed such allegations on Democrats, who he says are still sore over losing the election.

Trump continued his attacks over the weekend, tweeting: “It is the same Fake News Media that said there is ‘no path to victory for Trump’ that is now pushing the phony Russia story. A total scam!”

He added on Sunday: “The real story turns out to be SURVEILLANCE and LEAKING! Find the leakers.”

Haley said Sunday that she doesn’t trust Putin. Last month, she told NBC’s Matt Lauer, “We cannot trust Russia. We should never trust Russia.”