Two Senate Democrats are asking Texas Sen.
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In a Wednesday letter to Cruz, they urge his subcommittee to probe Trump’s “dangerous and irresponsible” invitation (Trump called it “sarcastic”) to Russian Federation to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing”, apparently referring to emails deleted from the private server of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
After reports surfaced that Russian Federation may have been behind the DNC email hack, Trump told reporters last week he hoped Russian Federation was “able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing”. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press”, said Trump, referencing Clinton’s deleted personal emails while she was Secretary of State.
Earlier this month, Trump invited Russians to hack Democratic rivals.
“Mr. Trump’s apparent encouragement of a foreign cyberattack on presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a US citizen and former Secretary of State, is risky and irresponsible”, Sens.
Cruz, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee oversight subpanel, is no stranger to convening panels to discuss foreign threats. Chris Coons (Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) said, is “dangerous and irresponsible” because it is an “apparent encouragement of a foreign cyberattack on presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a US citizen and former secretary of state”. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent Cruz a letter Tuesday calling for an “oversight hearing to determine whether existing federal criminal statutes and federal court jurisdiction sufficiently address conduct related to foreign entities that could undermine our elections”. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen.
Cruz’s office has not responded to a request for comment, but a hearing would seem unlikely.
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“Mr. Trump’s comments implicate USA criminal laws prohibiting engagement with foreign governments that threaten the country’s interests, including the Logan Act and the Espionage Act”, Coons and Whitehouse wrote.
