WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders criticized the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe Thursday, saying Americans are “frustrated” that so much time and money has been spent on an investigation that has “found zero evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.”
“The Senate Intel Committee told us yesterday that after nearly nine months of investigations that’s included over more than a hundred interviews, over more than 250 hours, 4,000 pages of transcripts, 100,000 thousand pages of documents, interviewing people in the intelligence community, relevant Obama officials and talking to every Trump campaign official they’ve requested, it’s literally found zero evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.”
Trump has indicated on several occasions that he believes the Russia investigation is a “hoax.”
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the committee “continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion,” but has yet to reach a determination. In October the committee will conduct 25 interviews and will continue to review documents, he said.
A spokeswoman for Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman, Mark Warner, D-Va., said he had no comment on Sanders’ statements.
Meanwhile, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is also looking for possible Russian collusion and obstruction of justice by Trump.
According to a report by Reuters Wednesday, the special counsel has taken over inquiries into a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to Trump’s campaign and associates. Sanders did not mention the Mueller investigation, but did say that America and the president is ready to move pass this issue.
“I think more important than the president being frustrated, I think that the American people are frustrated” said Sanders. “I think that the American people would like them to focus on some other things.”