Washington: US President Donald Trump insisted there is no evidence he colluded with Russia after a Senate hearing that highlighted warnings that his former national security advisor was vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
With the issue of the President’s ties to Moscow back in the spotlight, Mr Trump took to Twitter to dismiss as “old news” the Senate testimony on Monday by former acting attorney general Sally Yates about his former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Instead, Mr Trump chose to play up former director of national intelligence James Clapper’s acknowledgement during the same hearing that he was not aware of any evidence of collusion between Mr Trump and Russia, which US intelligence has concluded tried to sway the US election in Mr Trump’s favor.
“Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows — there is ‘no evidence’ of collusion w/ Russia and Trump,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Clapper, however, had added that he had not been aware that the issue was under investigation by the FBI until it was publicly revealed in March, suggesting the agency might have evidence he wasn’t privy to.
Ms Yates confirmed reports she had told the White House, six days into Trump’s administration, that Mr Flynn had not been honest with Vice-President Mike Pence about his discussions with the Russian envoy to Washington, leaving him vulnerable to leverage from Moscow. It took 18 days before the President dismissed Mr Flynn.
