Democrats lashed out Friday at President Donald Trump after the investigation he has called a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” resulted in the indictment of 13 Russian nationals on charges of interfering in the 2016 election.
“For all of those who have been asking ‘where is the evidence of a crime?’ — this is it. This is the criminal conspiracy,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, said in a statement. “Today’s indictments show precisely how the Russians worked to help the Trump campaign, in startling and extensive detail.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., slammed Trump for sidestepping sanctions designed to punish Moscow for election meddling and she said it is “imperative that the special counsel investigation be allowed to continue to follow the facts on the Trump-Russia scandal, unhindered by the White House or Republicans in Congress.”
Trump has repeatedly pushed back on investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election, raising doubts that it even had occurred.
“At this point, any step President Trump may take to interfere with the Special Counsel’s investigation — including removing Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, or threatening to remove special counsel Mueller directly — will have to be seen as a direct attempt to aid the Russian government in attacking American democracy,” the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Others, like Rep. Mike Capuano, D-Mass, tweeted at the president: “Do you still think that whole Russia thing is a hoax?”