Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Tuesday said there is “no longer a question” as to whether President Donald Trump’s campaign tried to collude with Russia to influence the 2016 election in his favor.
“The highest levels of the Trump campaign walked, eyes open, into a meeting designed to advance the Russian government’s support for Donald Trump,” Wyden said in a statement, citing emails Donald Trump Jr. released on Tuesday morning.
Wyden is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of several congressional panels investigating Russian election meddling and any potential collusion by the Trump campaign.
In Trump Jr.’s email exchange, which led up to a June 2016 meeting with Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, Trump family acquaintance Rob Goldstone discussed a “Russian government attorney” with alleged damaging information on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
“These emails show there is no longer a question of whether this campaign sought to collude with a hostile foreign power to subvert America’s democracy,” Wyden said. “The question is how far the coordination goes. It is now up to elected officials of both parties to stand up and do their duty: protect and defend the Constitution.”
