A whistleblower who told the House Oversight Committee about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's claims that President Barack Obama's economic sanctions would be ripped up is a "very credible" witness, Rep. Elijah Cummings said Thursday.
"This is a person who came to us back in June, and she came only because she felt duty bound as an American citizen to provide this information," the Maryland lawmaker and top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "She was sitting at an event, and they met [Alex] Cobson, who, of course, was a business associate of Gen. Flynn at one time, and he began to just talk to her about these things, and that's how she came to us."
Cummings said that he practiced law for a long time and has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and he does believe the whistleblower is "very credible."
Cummings this week wrote a letter to Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, to ask that the whistleblower's claims be fully investigated.
He said the witness reported meeting Copson, a former business associate of Flynn's and managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, and that Copson shared a text message he had just received from Flynn, who was on stage at the Capitol during Trump’s Inauguration speech.
Cummings said his committee has been trying to get documents from the White House since March, and to get hold of communications that Flynn may have had with companies where he'd worked before.
"The White House has not sent us one syllable . . . basically the Republicans have done everything in their power to make sure that we don't pursue this and get the information we want," Cummings said. "In other words, they have not been helpful at all. And so now we are just asking with this preliminary witness coming forward, we're just asking that we've asked Chairman Gowdy that he take a moment, She finally agreed to talk to him as long as the identity is kept secret, and I want him to listen to what she has to say."
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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