Mark Warner on Trump-Putin meeting

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement following President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany:

“We are told President Trump raised the subject of Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election and that President Putin told him, in effect, to ‘prove it.’ Whatever the President actually told Putin, it would have had much more force if just the day before President Trump had not equivocated about who was behind the unprecedented attack targeting America last fall. It would also have had more force if he had not again criticized the integrity of our intelligence agencies, among whom there is unwavering agreement about Russia’s active interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.‎

“While we proceed with our counterintelligence investigation, it is imperative that the Trump Administration refrain from any effort to relax or rescind the sanctions already in place. They also cannot seek to undermine congressional action toughening sanctions in response to Russia’s brazen assault on American democracy.”