Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he sees “no problem” with President Donald Trump’s onetime plan to build a Trump Tower in Russia amid his White House bid.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Paul refuted that a business ambition is criminal.
"I see no problem with someone running for president trying to build a hotel somewhere,” he said. “Now, if you are asking and saying ‘I will give you something in exchange for letting us build a hotel,’ that would be wrong. But I haven't heard any evidence of that. Just trying to build a hotel somewhere, I can't imagine how that would be criminal."
On the subject of special prosecutors, Paul was also critical, calling their investigations “a huge abuse of government power.”
“This has been my overall complaint about having these special prosecutors … that really they find a person and they look for a crime,” he said, adding: “With the special prosecutor you decide we're going after someone, the president, and we're going to squeeze as many people as we can until we can try to get a person. … I think they're a huge mistake and I think they're a huge abuse of government power.”
And Paul also condemned campaign finance violations as being “over criminalized.”
“If someone makes an error in filing paperwork or not categorizing a campaign contribution correctly, it shouldn't be jail time, it ought to be a fine,” he declared. “It's just like a lot of other things we've done in Washington, we've over-criminalized campaign finance.”
The libertarian-leaning senator also hedged on support for Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr.
"I haven't made a decision about him, but… the first things I've learned about him being for more surveillance of Americans is very, very troubling,” he said.
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