Sen. Chris Coons (D) is calling for a congressional hearing into Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.
Penned by Coons and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the letter asks Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to investigate if Donald Trump’s remarks breached federal law.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” said Trump, referencing Clinton's deleted personal emails while she was Secretary of State.
Trump made those comments after a suspected foreign hack into the Democratic National Committee’s server, which uncovered the potential collusion of top party officials to negate Bernie Sanders’ populist swell of support.
He later said any recovered emails from Clinton’s private server should be handed over to the F.B.I.
In the letter, Coons and Whitehouse called Trump’s words “an unprecedented call for a foreign government to spy on a U.S. citizen and interfere with a U.S. election.”
Congress has no ability to punish Trump should it find he violated one of a handful of espionage and fraud laws, but a Coons spokesperson says any findings could be sent to the Justice Department.