McCain calls on Trump to clarify wiretapping claim

• McCain said Trump can and should clear up his wiretapping claim
• He said he expects more 'shoes to drop' regarding Russia

Washington (CNN)Sen. John McCain said Sunday that President Donald Trump should either retract or substantiate his claim that President Barack Obama wire-tapped him in the final weeks of the presidential campaign and added he expects more to come on Russia's meddling in the US election.

McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he had "no reason to believe" Trump's allegation, which the President has not supported with any evidence and which a White House official said was prompted by a Breitbart article.

"I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the President of the United States could clear this up in a minute," McCain told anchor Jake Tapper. "All he has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, 'OK, what happened?'"

The Arizona senator's comments marked the latest high-profile call for the President to explain a series of tweets he sent on March 4 in which he claimed, without evidence, that Obama had the "wires tapped" at Trump Tower. Since Trump leveled the stunning accusations, several current and former national security officials denied the accusation, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as did Obama himself through his spokesman. Sources have told CNN that FBI Director James Comey also pushed back against Trump's claim.

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, law enforcement agencies must obtain a warrant from a secret court to undertake such monitoring. But communications of Americans may be swept up in the monitoring of foreigners, as was reportedly the case with ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose leaked contacts with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak led to his ouster.

Reports that Trump's associates contacted Russians known to US intelligence during the campaign have dogged Trump for months, raising questions about whether those contacts had anything to do with Russia's meddling in the US election. The US intelligence community has concluded that Moscow launched an aggressive hacking campaign to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Russian government has denied these claims, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday: "Russia is being demonized."

Facing political pressure over reports that he, too, met with Kislyak but did not acknowledge it during his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this month that he would recuse himself from any investigation into Trump's campaign.

The House and Senate Intelligence committees have said they are investigating alleged Russian involvement in the election, and the White House has asked Congress to include Trump's unsubstantiated wiretapping claims in its investigations.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said on CBS "Face the Nation" in an interview that aired Sunday that he had not seen any evidence to back Trump's claims. Ryan is a member of the "Gang of Eight" of congressional leaders with access to the nation's top intelligence. FBI Director James Comey met behind closed doors with those lawmakers Thursday.

In his interview Sunday, McCain said Trump's accusation must be resolved; if left hanging, "it undermines the confidence the American people have in the entire way the that the government does business," he said.

McCain also expressed his concern with the mounting questions about the relationships between Russian officials and people tied to Trump, who advocated for better relations with Russia during the campaign.

"There's a lot of aspects of this whole relationship with Russia and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin that requires further scrutiny, and so far, I don't think the American people have gotten all the answers,"McCain said. "In fact, I think there's a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede."

McCain, who has advocated a hard line against Russia, called into question the failure of the Republican Party to adopt at its 2016 national convention a plank for the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine following Russia's invasion of Crimea.

"Why was that taken out of the Republican platform?" McCain asked. "Clearly, it was not the will of most Republicans."

As president, Obama weighed the idea of arming Ukraine, but ultimately did not proceed with such a move.

McCain named Flynn as one person about whom he had questions. He went on to say that former Trump adviser Roger Stone also needed to be questioned in addition to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, accusing both of questionable ties to the ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

"This whole issue of the relationship with the Russians and who communicated with them and under what circumstances clearly cries out for investigations, but I would also point out, we should not assume guilt until we have a thorough investigation," McCain said.

If Russia Inquiry Is Not ‘Legitimate,’ Democrats May Abandon It

Representative Adam B. Schiff, right, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, during a news conference with Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican committee chairman, last week.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — They agreed just a week ago to the terms of a House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. But now some of the panel’s Democrats are warning that they may pull their support for the inquiry if it becomes mired in party-line politics.

When that might happen is unclear, and Democrats know that the current moment of even tentative comity on the Republican-controlled panel may offer their best chance for scrutinizing links between people close to President Trump and Russian officials.

Still, Democrats are bracing for fights over subpoenaing witnesses and documents — including, possibly, Mr. Trump’s tax returns — since Republicans have balked at an outside, independent inquiry into what intelligence officials say was an unprecedented intrusion into an American election by a foreign power.

“I’m not going to be part of a dog-and-pony show that is not a serious effort to do an investigation because this is really serious,” said Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California. “If it’s not a legitimate and comprehensive and in-depth investigation, why would we be party to it?”

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Democrats are already wary of moves by the committee’s chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, to undercut the purported Russian connection. Mr. Nunes has belittled news stories about the Russian links of Mr. Trump’s associates and has pledged — along with Senator Richard M. Burr, the North Carolina Republican who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee — to examine Mr. Trump’s accusations, made without evidence, that President Barack Obama ordered surveillance of Trump Tower.

Mr. Nunes was a prominent supporter of Mr. Trump’s campaign and served on the administration’s transition team.

So far, some Democrats on the House panel said, Mr. Nunes had been receptive to many of their requests in the inquiry. “Most of us would agree that there’s no way we’re participating in any form of cover-up or whitewash, so we will walk away if the moment requires,” said Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut. “But we’re certainly not there yet.”

“If we get to the point at any time where I feel we can’t do that, where there are legitimate lines of investigation that are being walled off, then I will say so,” Mr. Schiff told reporters this week.Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the committee’s top Democrat, said it was unclear whether the panel could conduct a credible investigation, ideally resulting in a single, bipartisan report on its findings. Along with Mr. Nunes, Mr. Schiff is among the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leaders who receive classified intelligence briefings.

Democrats expect the first major test of the investigation — and Mr. Nunes’s stewardship — to come on March 20, when the committee holds its first public hearing. An initial list of invited witnesses included James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence under Mr. Obama; and Sally Q. Yates, the former acting attorney general who was fired by the Trump administration after refusing to defend the president’s first travel ban.

Absent from the witness list was Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser, who resigned after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Though Mr. Nunes emphasized it was only an early list, he referred to Mr. Flynn as “a tangent,” portraying him as more of a victim of the intelligence leaks Mr. Nunes is seeking to investigate than a target of the inquiry.

“From everything that I can see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador, he was doing this country a favor, and he should be thanked for it,” Mr. Nunes said.

Mr. Nunes may need to tread cautiously to avoid the perception of crossing the line from impartial moderator to advocate. He has said the issue of whether Trump Tower was under surveillance during the campaign was well within the scope of the inquiry, and has denied that he added it after the president demanded that Congress investigate.

With a tight smile, Mr. Schiff said he welcomed the opportunity to disprove Mr. Trump’s accusation. But some Democrats fumed at the idea that the panel’s work could give credence to it. Should the issue not be put to rest quickly, Ms. Speier said, “it would call into question the entire investigation.”

Several Democrats said they expected their desire to compel certain witnesses to testify to stoke friction among Republicans. But a flash point could come if Democrats press to subpoena Mr. Trump’s tax returns, a move that could scuttle the entire inquiry.

Democrats have favored an outside, independent investigation, but many of them see the panel’s inquiry as the best they can do. And they are keenly aware that by pulling their support, they would sacrifice their roles in an investigation some see as among the most important of their time in public service.

“It’s a big jump to pull out of this investigation, no matter how bad it is,” said Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois. “Because whatever truth you can bleed out of this thing, the better off you are.”