On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate plans to investigate and “get answers” to alleged abuses by the Obama administration involving targeting President Trump’s campaign and transition team.
“The American people deserve answers about how such abuses could happen, and we intend to get those answers,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech.
The Kentucky Republican delivered the strongest statement yet in support of the view that President Trump and his administration have been subject to improper or even illegal surveillance, as well as unfair treatment by the outgoing Obama administration and others seeking to undermine him.
McConnell criticized U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan for refusing to allow the DOJ to drop its prosecution of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn after the DOJ discovered improper and biased handling of Flynn’s investigation.
“No matter what some Washington Democrats may try to claim, you’re not crazy or a conspiracy theorist if you see a pattern of institutional unfairness toward this president,” he said. “You would have to be blind not to see one.”
McConnell signaled his support for upcoming hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee that will seek the testimony of key Obama administration officials, including former FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser Susan Rice, “to get to the bottom of this.”
McConnell also stated that the federal surveillance legislation the Senate passed last week would increase the accountability and transparency of a flawed system, although critics say the bill failed to place needed limits on federal surveillance of online data.