President Donald Trump took aim at the investigation into Russian election meddling Saturday evening at an Ohio rally then seemed to compare the two-year probe to a report about an alleged Chinese spy that worked for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
After talking about the ongoing trade war with China and tariffs that the administration has placed on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, Trump talked about the report, threats to the U.S. and the Russia investigation.
“Speaking of China, it just came out that the Democratic leader and the leader of the Russian investigation, Dianne Feinstein, had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years!” Trump told the crowd. “And she’s leading the Russian investigation if that’s what you call it. How about she’s leading the Russia witch hunt!”
Feinstein is not running the Special Counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. It’s headed by Robert Mueller and under the authority of U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Feinstein addressed reports Saturday about the alleged spy by posting on Twitter that the situation dated back five years ago when the FBI alerted her to the possibility.
(1/2) The FBI told me 5 years ago it had concerns that China was seeking to recruit an administrative member of my Calif staff (despite no access to sensitive information). I took those concerns seriously, learned the facts and made sure the employee left my office immediately. pic.twitter.com/qpVyPanpJk
— Senator Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) August 4, 2018
“The FBI told me 5 years ago it had concerns that China was seeking to recruit an administrative member of my Calif. staff,” she wrote. “I took those concerns seriously, learned the facts and made sure the employee left my office immediately.”
The driver was terminated, she said, and he never had access to any “sensitive information.”
Trump said that he likes the California Democrat but “I don’t like the fact that she had a Chinese spy driving her and she didn’t know it.” He then appeared to mock that Feinstein is among one of many Democrats who has questioned Trump and his campaign’s connections to Russia.
“Then she says to me, ‘Well, what did you know about this and that,’ I mean, give me a break, c’mon folks,” Trump told the crowd.