House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters at a manufacturing event in Wisconsin Monday he had “nothing to add” about the indictments against former campaign aides to Donald Trump, adding, “I haven’t even read the indictments.”
“It is big news, but this is what you get from a special counsel,” he added after being pressed by a reporter at an event in Darien, Wisconsin. “They made an indictment. I really have nothing to add because I haven’t even read it, so I’m not going to speculate on something I haven’t read.”
Earlier Monday, Ryan said the news wasn’t going to derail from Congress’ focus on passing tax reform.
“I really don’t have anything to add other than nothing is gonna derail what we’re doing in Congress because we’re working on solving people’s problems.” Ryan said on WTAQ’s The Jerry Bader Show.
He repeated later: “Nothing is going to detail us from focusing on that.”
Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI after he lied about his interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government, the campaign’s clearest connection so far to Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
In court records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said Papadopoulos “falsely described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed ‘dirt’ related to emails” concerning Hillary Clinton. Records also describe an email between Trump campaign officials suggesting they were considering acting on Russian invitations to go to Russia.
In addition, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department authorities. The indictment against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The two have pleaded not guilty.