Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Sunday said President Donald Trump’s administration has “clearly” not “been forthcoming on what they know and when they knew it” with regard to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“Clearly, this administration has not been forthcoming on what they know and when they knew it with regard to Russian interference in the elections,” Warner said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
He cited Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s denials (later retracted) that they met with Russian officials.
“What we’ve seen is a constant effort to hide contacts with Russians. We’ve seen this pattern repeat itself,” Warner said.
Warner cited Donald Trump Jr.’s publication of his emails arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer after he was promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of an effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign.
“This is the first time that the public has seen in black and white, on the email thread, clear evidence that the Russians and particularly there was a Russian government effort to try to undermine Clinton, help Trump,” he said. “And what was remarkable was, you saw not only willingness but actually glee from the President’s son as well as involvement of the campaign manager and the President’s son-in-law to say, in effect, ‘Yes, bring it on.'”
Warner called it “very troubling” and said it “obviously moves our whole investigation to another level.”
“The President’s son has not been forthcoming about this meeting,” he added. “All of these denials over the past year really are now put in doubt as well.”
"This is the first time the public has seen in black & white, clear evidence, the Russian government effort to help Trump." Sen. Mark Warner pic.twitter.com/mDTJtwH6mK
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 16, 2017