Senator Collins Discusses the Russia Investigation and Other Issues on ABC’s “This Week”

Click HERE to watch the interview

New York, NY - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, discussed the Russia investigation and other issues this morning on ABC’s “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos.

A transcript of the interview follows:

“This Week”

April 15, 2018

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Let me bring in now Senator Susan Collins, senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Do you agree with that assessment of the Steele dossier? 

COLLINS:  It’s too early to tell.  Mr. Steele has refused to cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee, so we’ve not been able to interview him.  It will have to be Bob Mueller who gets to the bottom of some of the allegations in the report that Mr. Steele compiled. 

STEPHANOPOULOS:  You don’t think he’ll be able to. 

COLLINS:  I don’t.  I think it’s going to take the special counsel’s ability to do so.  I would note that it does raise questions about the sources of the information that Mr. Steele relied upon, because they were Kremlin sources.  And we know that the Russians wanted to sow the seeds of division in our country. 

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Disinformation at every level. 

COLLINS:  Exactly. 

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And does Robert Mueller need protection from the Senate? 

COLLINS:  I would think that it would not hurt if we passed legislation to send a message to the White House that we want the investigation to continue.  But the fact is that the president is never going to sign that legislation.  And there are some legitimate constitutional concerns about it.  But having the discussion in Congress helps send a very strong message that we do not want Mr. Mueller’s investigation interfered with in any way. 

STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think you’re certainly right.  The president would not sign that legislation.  So are there other steps the Senate could take to protect the integrity of the investigation? 

COLLINS:  Well, I think it’s important to note that even if somehow Mr. Mueller were fired -- and remember, only the deputy attorney general can fire him -- that the investigation is still going to go on.  So it would not spell the end of the investigation.  If a new deputy attorney general were nominated by the president, I cannot imagine the Senate confirming that individual without a clear commitment to appoint a new independent counsel. 

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And in fact one of the things we saw this week is that investigations continue outside the scope of Robert Mueller.  We now have the U.S. attorney in the southern district.  On James Comey, last June when he was testifying, you called his testimony credible, candid, and thorough.  Has anything since then changed your view of that? 

COLLINS:  His testimony was credible and candid but one of the questions that I asked Mr. Comey, which he answered honestly, was whether or not he had leaked to anybody outside of the FBI the reports and notes that he took on his meetings with President Trump and he had.  He admitted to that, which was a candid statement.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  You’re saying that he’s a leaker but not a liar, right? 

COLLINS:  Exactly.  But what’s disturbing about that is his leak of those documents violated the FBI’s own guidelines, which he himself helped to write.  So that’s troubling to me.  It’s also -- I would go back further than my friend the congressman did.  And to me, the first misstep that James Comey made, after a very distinguished career, was not 11 days before the election. 

It was back in the summer of 2016 --

STEPHANOPOULOS:  The press conference. 

COLLINS:  The press conference.  In which he did something very unusual.  As an investigator, he announced -- and thus violated the Department of Justice’s own guidelines -- the decision not to indict Hillary Clinton and then excoriated her for her handling of classified information.  That’s not an appropriate role for the FBI director.  And it seems to me that unfortunately Mr. Comey stopped making investigative judgments and instead was making political assessments.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And you think that was clearly the mistake for him right there.  On that leaking, though, you saw the president’s tweet this morning.  The president said that was classified information and he should go to jail for that.

Do you see any evidence of a crime there?

COLLINS:  No, I don’t.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And finally, I -- I do want to, before you go, ask -- want to ask you about Syria and the strikes on Friday night.  In your view as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was what accomplished and will more action be necessary?

COLLINS:  First of all, I think the strikes were proportional and justifiable.  The Assad regime has used chemical weapons 50 times.  They violate international treaties.  We acted with our allies, the French and the British, and I am glad that the strikes were undertaken.

That does not, however, solve the problem that we do not have an overall comprehensive strategy for dealing with Syria.  It’s a very difficult issue, but I don’t think we can stand idly by after the Syrians violated the 2013 agreement that the Russians negotiated that was supposed to put an end to all of their chemical weapons.

Clearly, that did not happen.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Senator Collins, thanks for your time this morning.

COLLINS:  Thank you.