Watergate prosecutor: Congress should keep Russia probes going
The former Watergate special prosecutor told a Senate panel Tuesday that Congress’ Russia investigations are crucial and should not be abandoned just because a special counsel is conducting a criminal investigation at the same time.
“Congressional investigations have long been a shining example of democracy in action,” said Richard Ben-Veniste, former Watergate special counsel during the Nixon era and former Whitewater chief minority counsel during the Clinton era.
He told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism “there are no compelling reasons” why congressional investigations and special counsel investigations can’t proceed concurrently.
“You both have important responsibilities to protect,” Ben-Veniste said.
Ben-Veniste’s testimony came on the same day that President Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., released emails showing he knew damaging information he was seeking about Hillary Clinton was being peddled by the highest levels of the Russian government.
The emails appear to confirm reports by The New York Times that President Trump’s close advisers and family members actively sought information they knew was part of a high-level Russian government effort to support the Trump campaign.
“We learned today that Donald Trump Jr. knowingly sought information from the Russian government to help his father’s campaign and that the repeated denials (that any such meetings took place) were false,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the subcommittee’s senior Democrat.
Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, “I think everybody in Congress wants him (Trump Jr.) to explain what that was all about.” Graham said subcommittee members will work on drawing up a witness list that could include the president’s son.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the full Judiciary Committee, called the emails released by Trump Jr. “deeply disturbing.”
“They appear to show direct coordination between the Trump campaign and possibly the Russian government itself,” she said in a statement. “There are still many questions that must be answered. ... I believe we need to have Donald Trump Jr. and other individuals come before the committee, in open session, as soon as possible.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, along with the Senate and House Intelligence committees, are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Special counsel Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI, has been appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to conduct a concurrent criminal investigation.
There were questions after Mueller was appointed about whether Congress should conduct its own Russia investigations or whether lawmakers would be interfering with Mueller’s work by moving ahead with their probes.
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to conduct investigations and lawmakers should exercise that right, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.