A New York Times report that the FBI had used an investigator posing as an assistant to spy on President Donald Trump's campaign aide George Papadopoulos was "very troubling," and answers are needed about how the agency began its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Vice President Mike Pence said Friday.
"The [Robert] Mueller report is in, no collusion, no obstruction," Pence told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Beyond that, we've got to get to the bottom of how all this started. We've got to get to the bottom of how all this started. The American people have a right to know how this investigation even began, and as the attorney general said when he testified before Congress, there was spying. We need to understand why there was."
If laws were broken during that surveillance, the people who were responsible must be held accountable, said Pence.
Meanwhile, Pence said he fully supports Attorney General William Barr in his decision to not testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Barr opted to stay away after Democrats on the committee wanted staff attorneys to question him, rather than lawmakers themselves.
He noted he served on Judiciary for 11 years, and served under a Democratic president and a Republican one, but never saw a situation in which lawyers questioned a cabinet member.
"Elected members of Congress ought to be able to do their job and ask the questions," Pence said. He also discussed the president's comments about allowing former counsel Don McGahn to testify, noting that the attorney already has been made available for Mueller and provided more than 30 hours of testimony.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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