Eric Swalwell Says No Apology Necessary For Obama Administration’s Surveillance Of Trump Campaign
Representative Eric Swalwell used his appearance on Fox News’ Outnumbered to not only suggest that Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. elections showed collusion with Trump’s campaign, but to claim that Trump’s campaign does not deserve an apology for its surveillance under then-President Barack Obama’s administration.
“I’ll never apologize for loving our country so much that I don’t think any campaign transition or president should draw as close to the Russians and welcome their support and never tell law enforcement while they were seeking to support them.”
“I’ll always stand on our side rather than Russia’s, and I just wish the president would, too,” he added.
Per Fox News, host Julie Banderas spoke to Swalwell about the issue and pressed him about the potential for an apology. Swalwell claimed that Mueller’s report “laid out a multiplicity of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians.”
Although Mueller’s report did not find enough evidence to declare collusion beyond a reasonable doubt, Swalwell suggests that the findings of the investigation revealed enough suspicious contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign and argued that “reasonable suspicion” was enough of a reason to start the investigation.
“There was certainly evidence of collusion, not evidence that met the beyond a reasonable doubt standard.”
Swalwell added that Trump might have known about Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election.
“This president is in no way cleared.”
https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian/status/1119323875660066816
As The Inquisitr reported, Attorney General William Barr told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the FBI spied on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He added that he wants to investigate the spying to ensure that it was justified.
Trump later supported Barr’s claims and suggested that not only did spying occur, but it was “illegal.”
Barr is referring to the intelligence collection that Obama’s administration conducted on Trump’s campaign, such as via Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. There is reportedly a Justice Department inspector general investigation into the warrants to determine if their issuing involved misconduct. Not only that, the same review is determining the role that an FBI informant played in Mueller’s investigation.
But some Democrats believe that Barr is attempting to smear the Obama campaign and intentionally conflating spying with standard intelligence gathering procedure. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff claims that Barr’s comments were a partisan move to aid the president, and added that Trump’s comment posed a danger to U.S. “democratic institutions.”
