Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, Tuesday said she has a "high degree of confidence" that the administration's investigators "comported themselves responsibly" while investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, but she can't say all the reasons then-FBI Director James Comey moved forward with his investigation.
"Maybe this was one piece of a big puzzle," Jarrett told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo during an often-contentious interview. "I do know that it's nearly four years ago, and I don't understand why our focus isn't on what's happening right now and today. That's the investigation I would like to see going on."
Jarrett also denied that Obama directed actions against the Trump campaign.
"That's not how our investigations work," she said. "We leave that to the intelligence community to bring forward information and the dossier...the (Robert) Mueller report didn't conclude there wasn't any wrongdoing. He was explicit in saying quite the opposite."
She also pushed back against Bartiromo when the show host asked what she knew about a dossier that had been used to obtain warrants against former Trump aide Carter Page, and about the "Obama administration spying on President Trump's campaign."
"I think what we all know and what should be concerning to every American is that the Russians tried to interfere with our election," said Jarrett. "Not only do we know that they did it back in 2016, but we know that there are efforts ongoing to do that and so the question I have is why aren't we doing everything possible to make sure that there isn't foreign influence in our elections coming up."
She also insisted that Obama tried to stop the interference, including calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin directly and putting pressure on the intelligence community.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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