Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer reacted to news that House Democrats have requested documents related to his tenure in the White House on Fox News Tuesday, telling anchor Sandra Smith that there’s “nothing that I have to hide.”
“All I will say is, again, I have seen the reports and I will do everything that — to facilitate this investigation and there is nothing that I have to hide, so I want a swift conclusion to this whole thing as soon as possible,” he said.
He acknowledged that “elections have consequences” and that Democrats now have “an oversight responsibility that I respect.” But, mirroring Trump’s language, he then suggested Democrats’ request for documents from 81 people and institutions related to Trump was just a “fishing expedition” after they failed to find “collusion.”
“What the Democrats are starting to realize is that from all the tea leaves that we’ve seen, that while some people did some bad things and there were some people that clearly interfered with the last election that there was no collusion,” he continued. “They’ve started to move on and go on what appears to be at least a potential fishing expedition going through the president’s finances and personal relationships and et cetera.”
Spicer was asked to hand over any documents, diaries, personal schedules and other items related to his employment at the White House. Congressional investigators are interested in his comments during a Feb. 14, 2017 press conference about Michael Flynn’s firing as national security adviser, in which Spicer appeared to shift the White House’s stance on the grounds for Flynn’s dismissal. The White House claimed at the time that Flynn didn’t break any laws in his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but that he was fired because Trump had lost faith in Flynn.
Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over his contacts with Russian officials.
Spicer: "There is nothing that I have to hide" pic.twitter.com/dXZsfyHw3z
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 5, 2019
