House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said special counsel Robert Mueller's recent indictment of 12 Russian officials on charges of hacking Democrats' computers during the 2016 campaign looks "ridiculous" because it left out Republicans who were also targeted.
[READ HERE: Mueller's indictment against 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016]
During an interview Sunday on Fox News, Nunes accused the media of largely ignoring the findings of his committee's months-old report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which he asserted was more comprehensive than Mueller's indictment. However, he also claimed the redactions in his panel's report prevented the presentation of the full picture and urged President Trump to declassify it.
"This entire report that you have in front of you, all you had to do was get to page 4, and you only had to read chapter 2 and you would have had nearly everything that's in the indictment," Nunes said, referring to a copy of the report held by host Maria Bartiromo. "There's more in this report than what's in the indictment. And this is what's very frustrating."
A grand jury returned Mueller's indictment Friday, after which it was announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The charges said 12 Russian officials "engaged in a sustained effort" to break into computers owned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton's campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
"It's great that they indicted Russians — yes, they did bad things. They're always up to bad things. We know that. They have very sophisticated intelligence capabilities in Russia. And they're always — they're constantly attacking the United States and our allies," Nunes said Sunday. "However, in the indictment, they leave out some really important people that they also went after, so the indictment plays like they are only going after the Democrats, when Bob Mueller and all his investigators and his lawyers know for a fact that they also targeted Republicans. Why is that not in the indictment? It makes the indictment look ridiculous."
President Trump, who has long called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt," is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland on Monday. He told CBS he "might" ask Putin to send indicted Russians to the U.S. for trial but admitted that he "hadn't thought about that."
But, because the Russians mentioned in the indictment are intelligence officers, Nunes said he doubted they will be held accountable, though he did say he supported calling out Russia for conducting cyberattacks against the U.S.
All you need to know about Friday indictment and Trump/Putin meeting...thx @MariaBartiromo... only 10 minute clip then you can watch World Cup final! https://t.co/bItEuoTiTf
— Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes) July 15, 2018
Nunes has long been critical of the redactions in his panel's report, which were made at the request of the U.S. intelligence community. He made note of this Sunday, referring to the "page after page" of redactions as Bartiromo displayed a paper copy. He stressed that Trump "has got to" declassify the report, claiming, "if the president would have declassified this ... the Mueller indictment would look ridiculous."
The Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released their final report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in late April, concluding that there was no “collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.” Instead, they found that Moscow's goal was to sow discord among Americans and not to help President Trump win the election.
Chapter 2, which Nunes referenced, focuses on Russian cyberattacks, Russian-state actors and third-party intermediaries" who disseminated stolen documents, and how the Russian government used RT and social media to disrupt the U.S. election process.
Democrats have accused the GOP majority of conducting an incomplete and misleading investigation. The report’s release came just over a month after the panel voted along party lines to make it public following a declassification review.
Nunes said Sunday that "all the Mueller team did was validate our report, indict some Russians, and leave out some very pertinent, relative evidence that the American public should see."
[Byron York: Nunes: Mueller indictment tracks House Intel report]