Sen. Cotton: Congress needs to get to bottom of 'abuses of power,' 'spying' on Trump campaign
'There appears to be gross abuses of power,' says Senator Tom Cotton discussing the need of Congress to get to the bottom of why there was spying on the Trump campaign
Sen. Tom Cotton supports Sen. Lindsey Graham’s potential move to subpoena former Obama officials that were involved in the controversial unmasking of Gen. Michael Flynn, the Republican Arkansas lawmaker told "America's Newsroom" Tuesday.
“Some of them may have had legitimate reasons to [unmask Flynn], career and intelligence professionals, many of whom operate undercover, but there were a lot of partisan officials as well: the White House chief of staff, the secretary of the treasury, even the vice president Biden, himself. When you pile that on to the abuses of getting electronic wiretaps on some Trump campaign advisers, we need to get to the bottom of what is happening."
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Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that his panel would begin holding hearings as part of its investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, and would focus on unmasking, abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
Graham just hours after the president tweeted demanding that he call former President Barack Obama to testify before the committee, announced that his panel will “begin holding multiple, in-depth congressional hearings regarding all things related to Crossfire Hurricane starting in early June.”
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Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI’s internal code name for the investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign were coordinating or colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Graham outlined what he called the “first phase” of the committee’s investigation, which he said, “will deal with the government’s decision to dismiss the Flynn case as well as an in-depth analysis of the unmasking requests made by Obama administration officials against Gen. Flynn.”
“We must determine if these requests were legitimate,” Graham said.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., made public on Wednesday a list of Obama officials who purportedly requested to “unmask” the identity of Flynn, who at the time was Trump’s incoming national security adviser. The list was declassified by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and sent to Grassley and Johnson.
The roster featured top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Obama’s then-chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Cotton said that there is no doubt that based on the transcripts that were declassified and released that President Obama and Biden were “well-aware” of the FBI’s misconduct in the Flynn case.
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“In fact, the acting attorney general told the House Intelligence Committee that she learned the unmasking of Michael Flynn’s phone call from President Obama himself. That is why it is so important we get to the bottom of what was going on in the final days of the Obama administration. Even if there is not a violation of law that appears to be gross abuses of power.”
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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