The House Intelligence Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes, has a tall list of people he still wants to interview about the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton, and the Russian interference.
The list of 32 names has been submitted to the Democratic majority of the panel, and includes the likes of Sidney Blumenthal, a key Clinton ally, former Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan, and Robby Mook, Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman.
Nunes said Sunday it is imperative to speak with them because of their ties to the infamous Trump dossier, which contained compromising, yet unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia. Compiled in 2016, the research effort was conducted by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and was funded in part by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
“Why would people in the Clinton campaign be tweeting out messages about [President] Trump’s involvement with Russia? It’s because they had the dossier,” Nunes said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They were promoting this message, this dirt, out there in 2016, and we need to ask these Clinton campaign people where they got it from. Did they get it from Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS the dossier they were paying for or do they get it from some Russian friends?”
The list, which also includes Simpson, stems from an exhaustive roll of names Nunes sent to a GOP task force of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee’s last year, which included Clinton allies, current and former Justice Department and FBI officials connected to the Russia investigation, as well as people who served in the White House or State Department under the Obama administration. There were roughly 42 names in all.
“These names are all-important because we need to know if these people were involved in the chain of custody of the dossier,” Nunes said. “The dossier makes claims that this information came from Russians, so all the names that are on this list that we didn’t get to last year that still need to be interviewed if we’re really looking for Russian collusion we need to know if any of those people were actually talking to Russians on behalf of the Clinton campaign or any other operative.”
Nunes was doubtful that his list would make any headway with Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in charge of the House Intelligence Committee, but suggested there were other ways to proceed with the investigation, even if it goes out of his hands.- READ MORE