Chicago Tribune: After Kushner hearing, Rep. Quigley says House Russia probe may take a year
This article was published on July 25, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.
By Katherine Skiba
use Intelligence Committee member Mike Quigleysaid President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was cooperative when he appeared Tuesday before the panel.
The Chicago Democrat said he worries, though, that the president is "directly and indirectly" trying to "cool" ongoing probes by lawmakers and Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by Trump associates.
Trump has called the Russian investigation a "witch hunt" and recently has been critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Quigley said after Kushner's long, closed-door meeting with lawmakers that additional documents are being sought from the White House senior adviser. Those could trigger more questions. He said his House committee may take a year to complete its work, and he expected the probe by Mueller, who is trying to ascertain if crimes were committed, will take even longer.
"You get the impression — I don't know anything in specific — but you get the impression that (Trump) is stomping around the White House fuming about this and he is going to have a hard time waiting this out this long," Quigley said.
Kushner on Monday spoke in private to the Senate Intelligence Committee and issued a long, public statement saying he did not collude with Russians. He may be asked to appear again before the House panel, similarly in closed session, Quigley said.
A public report eventually will be released by the panel to shed light on what happened and prevent future interference, said Quigley, the only lawmaker from Illinois on one of the two congressional intelligence panels.
"This would go a whole lot faster," Quigley said, "if President Trump said, 'Listen up everybody associated with the Trump campaign and my current administration, you go out there and tell everybody exactly what happened. You tell them the truth and I am not going to say another word about how the investigation is going forward.'"
Quigley said he was concerned about the prospect of Trump firing Sessions and taking steps to halt Mueller's work.
"It's a big concern. I think right now, the country is on the edge of what could be a constitutional crisis," the congressman said.
He said it's wrong to believe the Russia probes only matter if the result is an indictment or the president's impeachment. "It's too soon for anybody to prejudge," he said. But he said for people to say there is no fire here, only smoke, "that's just as wrong."
A former criminal defense attorney, Quigley observed: "We're setting the bar really low if people only care about whether a law was broken."