The Russia probe coming out of the Senate Intelligence Committee now involves another presidential candidate from 2016: Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
National security expert Juliette Kayyem joined Boston Public Radio to explain how Stein might be linked to Russia.
“The Senate has asked for information about her campaign ... and Russia involvement,” Kayyem said. “She, to be fair to her, says they're not going to find anything.”
The committee is leading one of at least three federal investigations into Russian ties to the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to manipulate the 2016 election. It is now interested in the ties between the Stein campaign and Russia.
Jill Stein attended a 2015 party in celebration of Russia’s government news service, and she was photographed at a table with President Vladimir Putin and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who has entered a plea deal with the special counsel investigating campaign ties to Russia.
“Her opinions are definitely pro-Russia, much more so even the Trump campaign,” Kayyem said. “That’s the question that [Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina)] is raising — were there any contacts [or] a conspiracy of the opponents, and one of them was working with the Russians?”
Kayyem says if Jill Stein colluded with Russian officials, it was not in an effort to cement her own victory; instead, it would have been designed to weaken Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“Sometimes you wonder, was the goal to even have Donald Trump win?” she said. “It was just to disrupt or undermine Hillary Clinton before she became president.”
National security expert Juliette Kayyem joins Boston Public Radio every week. She is the CEO of ZEMCAR, a member of the faculty of the Kennedy School, and a CNN and WGBH contributor. To hear her interview in its entirety, click on the audio player above.
