GOP Intel Member Tom Rooney: Our Russia Investigation Should End – It’s Become a ‘Trap’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” House Intelligence Committee member Tom Rooney (R-FL) argued that the committee’s investigation should end because it has “gotten to the point now where we’re literally bringing people in for nine hours just so the Democrats can leak to the press something as ridiculous as white lies, not having anything to do with the Russia investigation, but that that drives the whole story for the whole next day.”

Rooney said, “The committee hearing yesterday lasted for nine hours, and the one thing that got out…that Hope Hicks lies for President Donald Trump was obviously leaked by the Democratic side of the aisle to the media, and that has driven the news today, not the nine hours testimony that she gave of her knowledge of what Russian collusion — or lack thereof there may have been in the 2018 — or ’16 election cycle, but this one nugget.”

He continued, “And that’s why, tonight, I’ve asked our Chairman, Conway, that we need to end this investigation. It’s been going on for a year. We’ve interviewed scores of witnesses. And now, we’ve gotten to the point now where we’re literally bringing people in for nine hours just so the Democrats can leak to the press something as ridiculous as white lies, not having anything to do with the Russia investigation, but that that drives the whole story for the whole next day.”

Rooney further stated, “The question was, have you ever lied for the president? And — which, as you know, is an extremely broad question. That could be like me telling a staffer to tell somebody that’s calling me on the phone that I’m not here. That would be asking my staffer to lie for me. So, that would include what the question being asked was. So, I actually chimed in at that moment and said, can we please specify as to whether or not you’re asking her if she’s ever lied for the president with regard to the Russia investigation, her testimony here, or anything that she said during this testimony? Because then that would be an impeachable — in a courtroom, that would be impeaching the witness that she’s not truthful. And of course, to that, she said that she has not lied with regard to any of those things. So, then the question was, so you’re talking about white lies? And then she repeated that. It wasn’t exactly in that timeframe, but that’s how the term white lies came out.”

Rooney added, “It was a trap. And that’s what our investigation has become. … If we have reduced ourselves so far to get to the point now where we’re just leaking stuff like this, rinky-dink things like Hope Hicks tells white lies for her boss, then we have gone completely off the rails, and this investigation needs to end.”

He also stated, “I don’t want to imply at all that whatever Mr. Mueller is doing is somehow legitimate or illegitimate. That is a completely separate criminal investigation that has nothing — or should have nothing to do with the House Intelligence Committee investigation. … His investigation is his investigation, and I’ll just leave it at that.”

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