{"id":588,"date":"2018-01-10T09:53:08","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T14:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2018-03-11T10:00:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T14:00:49","slug":"grassley-there-is-no-gop-conspiracy-to-shield-donald-trump-from-russia-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"Grassley: There is no GOP &#8216;conspiracy&#8217; to shield Donald Trump from Russia investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/staff\/8887\/jason-noble\/\" rel=\"author\">Jason Noble<\/a>, jnoble2@dmreg.com\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item nobyline\">Jan. 10, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DESMOINESREGISTER- Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/uw-media.desmoinesregister.com\/video\/embed\/109330832?placement=embed\" width=\"540\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is no Republican \u201cconspiracy\u201d to protect President Donald Trump from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">\u201cI hear all this conspiracy about Republicans ganging up to make sure that we shut down this investigation,\u201d Grassley, a Republican, said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been involved in such discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Grassley is Iowa\u2019s senior senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of four congressional panels investigating Russia\u2019s role in the election.<br \/>\nMedia coverage of the investigations gives the distinct impression that Republicans are shielding the president for political reasons, Grassley said. But that hasn\u2019t been his experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cI\u2019m thinking to myself now, when have I had a meeting with any Republican that said we ought to work together to stop this or that? I haven\u2019t been involved in any such discussions,\u201d he said. \u201cI can tell you right now, I haven\u2019t had those conversations with colleagues or the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">He made the comments during a weekly call with Iowa reporters a day after U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/feinstein-releases-testimony-of-glenn-simpson-whose-research-firm-fusion-gps-was-behind-trump-dossier\/2018\/01\/09\/15da150a-f562-11e7-beb6-c8d48830c54d_story.html?utm_term=.bae40d40a21d%C2%A0\">released the transcript of an interview the Judiciary Committee conducted with the head of a private intelligence firm<\/a>\u00a0that investigated Russia\u2019s involvement in the campaign generally and with the Trump campaign specifically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Feinstein said the public release was aimed at knocking down unfair attacks against the firm, Fusion GPS, as well as the broader federal investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion. But it drew an immediate rebuke from Grassley, who said it would undermine the Judiciary\u2019s own investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Grassley has resisted making public the transcript of the 10-hour interview with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, even after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/02\/opinion\/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html%C2%A0\">Simpson himself asked for its release<\/a>. Last week,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/senior-republican-refers-trump-dossier-author-for-possible-charges\/2018\/01\/05\/ead4585e-f0af-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html?utm_term=.45efd7d7d50e%C2%A0\">Grassley referred the author the firm\u2019s Russia dossier, Christopher Steele, to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution<\/a>, alleging that he had lied to federal investigators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Grassley\u2019s comments to reporters also came a couple hours after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/951109942685126656\">Trump himself tweeted that the investigations were a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and asserting that \u201cRepublicans should finally take control!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Grassley defended his investigation as fair, untainted by political considerations and devoted to going \u201cwhere the facts lead you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cMy job isn\u2019t to make the president look good or bad, it\u2019s just to get the facts out,\u201d Grassley said, adding, \u201cWhen I\u2019m chairman of a committee, I\u2019m in control, and what the president says doesn\u2019t bear upon what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jason Noble, jnoble2@dmreg.com\u00a0Jan. 10, 2018 There is no Republican \u201cconspiracy\u201d to protect President Donald Trump from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-national-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-11_09-55-16.jpg?fit=513%2C401&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-9u","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1248,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1248","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":0},"title":"Justice Dept. 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