Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Va., on Monday compared special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election to birtherism, the conspiracy once pushed by President Trump questioning former President Barack Obama's place of birth.
“Imagine that there was a partly political-funded investigation into President Obama’s place of birth, right? Because this Russia investigation is essentially birtherism,” Garrett told CNN.
“Imagine if political money, $9 million from the Clinton campaign and the DNC to Fusion GPS, were levied to do an investigation against President Obama as to his origin of birth,” Garrett repeated. “That would be ridiculous and un-American, and this is too.”
Garrett made the comments while arguing the FBI and Justice Department's alleged abuse of power to apply for a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page raises issues given the constitutional rights to privacy and due process.
In addition, while saying that Russia has meddled in U.S. elections "since 1919," he contrasted accusations of collusion to “the crazy people who made aspersions against President Obama [who] didn't have the weight of the federal government being brought to bear to sort of flesh out those aspersions."
Garrett, a member of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security, also called for the affidavit underpinning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application for Page to be made public.
"I'm confident that Adam Schiff is being less than forthright. Release the affidavit and we'll know who is telling the truth," Garrett added, referring to the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Schiff, D-Calif., announced Monday the intel panel had voted to release a memo drafted by Democrats, which counters the controversial GOP document that was made public on Friday.
Trump now has five days to consider blocking or consenting to the memo's release.
