While President Trump is pushing back on House Democrats who are trying to conduct long overdue congressional oversight, other people who received requests from the House Judiciary Committee Monday for documentation and information plan to cooperate.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer intends to turn over what members of Congress want.
"I will do everything to facilitate this investigation and there’s nothing that I have to hide. So I want a swift conclusion to this whole thing as soon as possible," Spicer said on Fox News.
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The committee requested any documents Spicer has related to, among other topics, Michael Flynn’s departure as national security adviser, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and discussions about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Spicer suggested that Democrats had read "the tea leaves," adding that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia "and so they’ve started to move on and go on what appears to be at least a potential fishing expedition."
Trump inaugural committee chair Tom Barrack is on board.
CNBC:
A spokesman for Barrack told CNBC in an email that the investor "will fully cooperate with the Committee's important work as he has with all government inquiries."
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Barrack, founder of private equity real estate firm Colony Capital, has been asked to hand over documentation as it pertains to numerous issues involving the president, including foreign governments "discussing, offering, or providing, or being solicited to discuss, offer, or provide, any present or emolument of any kind," to Trump's inaugural committee.
Lawmakers also are asking for information from organizations and individuals beyond the president's inner circle.
Though Cambridge Analytica is best known for misappropriating the data of tens of millions of American Facebook users without their knowledge, its executives have also been frequently tied to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who also received a document request from the committee on Monday.
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Now, the committee is seeking more information about these contacts and any other communication that Cambridge Analytica, its parent company SCL Group, and key executives may have had with WikiLeaks or with Russia. The committee is also requesting any documents related to efforts to swap campaign-related communications or data with foreign entities.
Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser "met with Assange in February 2017 at the Ecuadoran embassy in London."
In a statement, Kaiser's attorney Jim Walden told WIRED that his client "has been fully candid and cooperative with federal prosecutors and Senate staff already."
"Despite the fact that many people in the corridors of power are not happy about her candor, she is resolute," Walden wrote. "She will assist with this new House Judiciary inquiry, as she has with the many ongoing investigations into the President and Cambridge Analytica, ensuring that the full truth is revealed.”
Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump’s legal team, vowed to cooperate. “I received the Committee’s request and will cooperate to the best of my ability,” Corallo told The Daily Beast. The committee wants to ask Corallo about a lot: his July 2017 resignation from the Trump legal-defense team, the 2016 pro-Russia revisions to the GOP platform concerning Ukraine, discussions about sanctions on Russia, any campaign-relevant data that changed hands with foreign officials during 2016, and “possible pardons for you, Paul Manafort, or Michael Cohen.”
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Rob Goldstone—the music publicist who helped set up the notorious June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer—said, “as with all the requests I have ever received, I will be complying in full and in a voluntary capacity.”
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Felix Sater, a former Trump associate, stated, “I have and always will continue to voluntarily and truthfully cooperate with any United States government Agency and their requests.”
And then there are the Trump associates left off Monday's list who are asking to be included.
Carter Page, the Trump campaign foreign policy adviser whom the FBI placed under surveillance in 2016 owing to his proximity to Russian intelligence officers, said that he was already preparing documents to give the panel.
"I will be more than happy to help,” Page told The Daily Beast.
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Sam Nunberg, a former Trump political adviser who has already been grilled by the Robert Mueller grand jury and Senate Intel, said, “I plan to comply particularly because I was not sent a random letter, as I've seen with the list of other recipients.” He added, “I’ll give a detailed response. If I have documents, I’ll hand them over, and if I don’t, I’ll explain why it’s outside of my purview of responsibilities or my relationship with the president and the campaign.”
Spicer says he'll cooperate with House investigation (The Hill)
Trump’s Old Crew Members Are Ready to Hand Over Their Receipts to the House Judiciary Committee (Daily Beast)
HOUSE PROBES CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA ON RUSSIA AND WIKILEAKS (WIRED)