McCain: Attacks On FBI, DOJ Only Serve Putin’s Interests

WASHINGTON, DC - Senator John McCain speaks to journalists after Senate party caucus luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Tuesday October 31, 2017. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - Senator John McCain speaks to journalists after Senate party caucus luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Tuesday October 31, 2017. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) released a statement Friday afternoon calling out President Trump and his Republican colleagues just minutes before the House Intelligence Committee released a controversial memo that claims an anti-Trump bias within the FBI.

In the statement, McCain said attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice only serve one person’s interests: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s.

“The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests — no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s,” he said. “The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the President, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

His comments come as President Donald Trump and Republicans ignored the FBI’s “grave concerns” about the memo, which alleges that FBI officials abused the FISA process when seeking a warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The full statement from McCain:

“In 2016, the Russian government engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy. Russia employed the same tactics it has used to influence elections around the world, from France and Germany to Ukraine, Montenegro, and beyond. Putin’s regime launched cyberattacks and spread disinformation with the goal of sowing chaos and weakening faith in our institutions. And while we have no evidence that these efforts affected the outcome of our election, I fear they succeeded in fueling political discord and dividing us from one another.

“The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

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