For more than a year, many Democrats have been howling about alleged “collusion” during the 2016 election between Russia and the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump.
But now the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee just stated that the alleged “collusion” could be little more than a “set of coincidences.”
According to The Daily Caller, that significant admission from Virginia Sen. Mark Warner came during a recent interview with a reporter for The New Yorker.
Warner, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been investigating the reports of alleged Russian collusion and interference in the 2016 election since January 2017 with committee chair Richard Burr, a Republican senator from North Carolina.
“I’m reserving my final judgment until we’ve seen all the witnesses we need to see, and we’ve gotten all the facts. So I’m going to hold off,” stated Warner.
The senator explained that his committee was still questioning witnesses and reviewing documents related to their investigation, and had yet to interview a number of key Trump associates in the coming weeks.
He stated, “I’m not going to weigh in until we see everyone.”
Warner was asked if he thought Trump campaign associates had purposefully coordinated with Russian agents to steal the election or had just been foolishly “duped” into helping Russian interference.
“This may all be simply a set of coincidences or it may be … it was not the sophistication to realize what was happening,” the senator replied.
Though it has been reported that there were contacts between Russians and various members of Trump’s campaign team, allegations of collusion and coordination have been vehemently denied by President Trump’s White House.
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Warner stated that he was hopeful his committee would wrap up their investigation and issue final reports on the matter in the near future.
It is worth noting that the House Intelligence Committee has already released a final report of their similar investigation into the 2016 election and concluded that there was no evidence of collusion or coordination, a conclusion Sen. Warner seems to be edging toward as well.