On Sunday, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said that it was “really important” that there is an “in-depth investigation” into former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice and certain actions it might have taken while he was in the White House.
Sen. Collins made her remarks on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Collins supports IG probe into Trump DOJ seizure of phone data: “There are 2 serious allegations here…whether or not there was a leak of classified information by members of Congress [&] has DOJ abused its power by going after members of Congress, press for partisan purposes?” pic.twitter.com/7tjFOQyvDb
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 13, 2021
Sen. Collins: ‘Has The Justice Department Abused Its power?’
Collins’ comments come in the wake of reports that Apple reportedly supplied the phone data for a number of Democratic lawmakers, their staff, and some of their family members to the Trump Justice Department.
USA Today reports, “The Justice Department’s independent watchdog on Friday announced that it was launching a broad investigation into whether the Trump administration and its two attorneys general improperly seized phone records of House Democratic lawmakers, their staff and journalists as part of an aggressive 2018 leak investigation.”
Trump AG Bill Barr has denied the allegations.
CBS’s John Dickerson said to Collins, “Let me move on to the question of a New York Times report this week that said that during the Trump administration, the Department of Justice subpoenaed some information from Apple that uncovered the accounts of two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.”
“You’re on the Senate Intelligence Committee,” Dickerson said. “What does that report- what’s your reaction to that report?”
Collins replied, “There are two serious allegations here.”
“One has to do with whether or not there was a leak of classified information by members of Congress,” Collins explained.
“But the second, which is also important, is, has the Justice Department abused its power by going after members of Congress or the press for partisan, political- political purposes?”
.@SenatorCollins: "There are two serious allegations here…
The second, which is also important, is, has the Justice Department abused its power by going after members of Congress or the press for partisan, political purposes?"https://t.co/sUiA0PEYB3
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 13, 2021
Sen. Collins Supports Investigation
The moderate GOP senator then emphasized why she thought an investigation was crucial.
“And that’s why I support the deputy attorney general’s request that the inspector general of the Department of Justice do an in-depth investigation of both of these issues,” Collins said.
She added, “That is really important.”
The two Democrats mentioned by Dickerson are leading RussiaGate Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Schiff told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “It also makes the Department of Justice just a fully owned subsidiary of the president’s personal legal interests and political interests.”
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