The following article by Cristiano Lima was posted on the Politico website February 18, 2018:
Rep. Adam Schiff jabbed President Donald Trump on Sunday for citing the indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in its probe of Russian election meddling as proof his campaign had not colluded with foreign operatives.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the California Democrat was asked whether he felt the indictment by Mueller proved that Trump campaign officials had not colluded with Russia, as the president has suggested on Twitter.
“No, of course not,” Schiff replied. “But this is a president who claims vindication anytime someone sneezes.”
The president seized on the recent indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three foreign entities to undermine the 2016 presidential election as evidence that his team had not committed any wrongdoing. No American citizens were indicted.
“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted,” Trump tweeted Friday after the indictment was unveiled. “The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!”
Schiff criticized Trump for continuing to downplay Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 campaign, citing the Mueller indictment as conclusive proof of an “elaborate” campaign to interfere in the U.S. electoral process.
“It ought to put to rest for anyone, including the president, who continues to call this a witch hunt, that the evidence is now overwhelming and unequivocal and we need to move to protect ourselves from Russian interference in elections that are coming up,” Schiff said.
Schiff also called on Trump to impose sanctions on Russia passed by Congress in response to Russians’ 2016 election meddling.
“It is inexplicable that the president of the United States continues to sit on sanctions that Congress passed, that Congress wants enforced against Russia over this interference,” Schiff said. “They can’t point the finger back when they’re sitting on sanctions that the Congress, on a very bipartisan basis, said need to be imposed.”
View the post here.