Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) jokingly told a crowd Monday evening that President Trump mentioned Robert Mueller’s probe “about 20 times” while they played golf over the weekend.
Graham said he urged the president not to preemptively end the special counsel investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling for fear that it could hurt Republicans chances in the midterm elections.
“I want to win in November. If we stop the Mueller probe tomorrow, you wouldn’t be able to talk about anything else,” Graham said, as first reported by Roll Call. “I told the president this: I promise you, you’ll be treated fairly. I promise you that the people who put the [Hillary] Clinton investigation in the tank, they’re going to have their day, too.”
{mosads}While Graham said he agrees with the president that there is no evidence his campaign team colluded with Russia, he has said before he does not share Trump’s opinion that the Mueller investigation is a witch hunt.
“He is following the evidence where it takes him, and I think it’s very important that he be allowed to do his job without interference, and there are many Republicans who share my view,” Graham told CNN’s Jake Tapper in March.
The comments come amid increased scrutiny of a 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between Trump campaign officials — including the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort — and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties.
While Trump and his campaign initially claimed the meeting was to discuss adoption policies between the U.S. and Russia, the president finally admitted Sunday it was to gain information on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 opponent.
“Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!” he said.
Graham said this week that, given Senate rules, “there’s a good chance” he’ll be chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, and, if he is, Trump can expect further investigation into the FBI’s handling of its 2016 probe into Clinton’s private email server, as well as the surveillance warrant that Trump defenders say served at the basis of the Russia probe.
“So, I’m going to let Mueller do his job and we’ll see what he finds, but Mueller’s not in charge of looking at the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] FISA warrant application, he’s not in charge of overseeing the FBI. What they did during the 2016 election on behalf of Clinton appalls me,” he said.