U.S. Senator Ron Johnson continues to insist that last month’s appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel will impede efforts by the Senate Intelligence Committee to determine whether President Donald Trump or his allies broke any laws.
The Wisconsin Republican said Thursday’s hearing with former FBI director James Comey demonstrates that the committee is capable of investigating concerns over possible coordination between Russia and Trump associates. “I think America saw that the Senate intelligence committee is operating in a very non-partisan fashion. I think they held a very good hearing,” Johnson told WRDN in an interview on Friday morning.
Johnson, who on word of Mueller’s appointment last month said he that he thought “Congress’s ability to investigate this process fully is going to be hampered” has not changed his views.
“I wanted to let them (the committee) take this ball; do the investigation, issue the report to hopefully get this behind us as quickly as possible. I think the special counsel unfortunately will slow this process down,” he said. “We’ve got to get this behind us, because we have enormous challenges facing this nation, and we can’t have any branch of government distracted by something like this.”