Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is coming out guns-a-blazing in response to committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr’s decision to issue a rogue subpoena of President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Cornyn, who until after the midterm elections served as the number two-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate as the Majority Whip, now is calling on Burr, a North Carolina Republican, to cease once and for all the committee’s investigation into the Russia hoax.
“My understanding is that Donald Trump Jr. has cooperated with the committee extensively,” Cornyn said on Thursday in comments to reporters, including CNN’s Manu Raju, according to a transcript of the senator’s remarks that Cornyn’s office provided to Breitbart News.
“My understanding is also that committee staff asked him to come back in to wrap up that investigation. I’m going to talk to the chairman and the other members of the committee and find out exactly where we are,” Cornyn said, adding:
But I just think after the Mueller investigation has concluded after two years, dozens of lawyers and others, FBI agents, investigating this, we know everything we already know about Russian collusion and there was none. So I think the rationale of keeping the investigation of the Intelligence Committee open is wearing kind of thin.
When Raju asked him if Trump Jr. should come in to testify again in response to the subpoena, Cornyn did not say he should come in.
“I’m going to talk to the chairman and committee members and staff and figure out exactly where we are,” Cornyn said. “All I can tell you is he has cooperated extensively. I can understand why after the Mueller investigation is over, his frustration at thinking how much longer is this going to go on, I think that’s a legitimate concern, but the committee needs to wrap up its [investigation].”
When Raju noted that Trump Jr. plans to defy the subpoena, Cornyn then said he does not know, but, again, for a third time, he reiterated that the Senate Intelligence Committee must conclude its investigation because there is no collusion.
“Well, I’m not going to speculate on what he may or may not do; we’ll wait and see,” Cornyn said. “I’m going to get more information, but I do think it’s time for us to begin wrapping up the Intelligence Committee’s investigation.”
Not one Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is publicly defending Burr’s move to subpoena Trump Jr., which was made in contravention of orders from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who this week said the Russia hoax is now “case closed.”