Schumer: Senate Judiciary's Russia Probe was a 'Whitewash'

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ripped into GOP lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee and said their probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was a "whitewash," The Hill is reporting.

"To call the Senate Judiciary Committee's Trump-Russia investigation halfhearted is too generous," he said. "It has been no different than the effort taken by Representative Nunes," he said, referring to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The judiciary panel released more than 1,800 pages of transcripts on Wednesday of interviews with Donald Trump Jr. and other who attended a meeting with a Russian attorney at Trump Tower before the 2016 election.

The transcripts show Trump Jr. deflected questions during his interview and said he could not remember whether he had discussed the Russia probe with his father.

According to the Hill, Schumer maintained the decision to release the transcripts of interviews with Trump Jr. and others at the meeting was a "perfunctory move, apparently intended to signal the end of the committee's on-again, off-again halting investigation."

And he said that Senate Republicans have "barely scratched the surface."

He also claimed the panel’s probe was "designed to let the president and his lawyers interfere with the (Robert) Mueller probe and get a peek at any potential evidence."

But Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the transcripts were released "to allow the public to know what we know."

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