Donald Trump returned to the attack over the Russia investigations on Monday, claiming the Obama administration “did nothing” in response to election interference from Moscow other than investigate his campaign “to discredit so Crooked H could win”, producing a scandal “bigger than Watergate”.
The president tweeted less than a week after the NSA and cyber command chief, Adm Mike Rogers, told a Senate committee the president had not authorised him to counter ongoing Russian cyber-attacks and said the US under Trump had “clearly” not done enough in the area.
The Trump White House has also been slow to implement sanctions against Russia passed overwhelmingly by Congress in response to election meddling.
On Sunday, Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough told NBC a bipartisan statement on Russian interference issued before the election was “dramatically watered down” at the insistence of the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
On Monday, Trump wrote: “Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November? Wanted to discredit so Crooked H[illary Clinton] would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.”
Congressional committees, the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating Russian election interference and alleged collusion with Moscow by aides to the Trump campaign.
Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and four former Trump aides: national security adviser Michael Flynn, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.
