Russia investigators probe 2016 GOP platform fight

Source: Politico




Congressional investigators have interviewed ex-Donald Trump aides about the campaign’s push to remove proposed language that called for giving weapons to Ukraine.

By JOSH MEYER 11/08/2017 05:03 AM EST

U.S. investigators are focusing on an enduring mystery of the 2016 election: whether Trump campaign officials made the Republican Party platform more friendly to Russia as part of some broader effort to collude with the Kremlin, according to congressional records and people familiar with the probes.

Congressional investigators have interviewed ex-Donald Trump aides and advisers including J.D. Gordon, the national security policy representative at last year’s GOP convention, about the campaign’s push to remove proposed language from the 2016 Republican platform that called for giving weapons to Ukraine. People involved with crafting the platform also were expecting interest from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, such as witness interviews or producing documents, some of those sources said.

The Trump campaign’s position in the platform fight was seen at the time as making the official GOP stance friendlier toward Russia because the proposed language they defeated would have endorsed sending weapons to aid the Ukrainian government’s fight against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. Many leading Republicans backed the idea, so the platform fight came as a surprise.

Now that year-old debate is getting fresh scrutiny from the ongoing investigations into how Moscow meddled in the 2016 election and whether any Trump aides were involved, including then-convention manager Paul Manafort. The president has repeatedly denied any collusion, calling the investigations a “witch hunt.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/08/republicans-russia-platform-fight-244672