The Russia connectionA Mueller-like criminal investigation into Russia’s meddling in U.K. politics needed: MP
British lawmaker calls for launching a criminal investigation in the U.K., modelled after the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the United States, to explore the reach and extent of Russia’s efforts to interfere in British democracy. Damian Collins, a Conservative MP, said that only a police investigation, with the power to seize documents and subpoena witnesses, could ascertain the scope of any Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to influence the 2016 referendum over Britain’s membership in the EU. Such an investigation, he said, would also ensure that future elections were protected from attack by foreign powers.
Damian Collins, a Conservative Member of Parliament (Folkestone & Hythe, in Kent, southeast England) said that there was a need to launch a criminal investigation, modelled after the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the United States, to explore the reach and extent of Russian efforts to interfere in British democracy.
Collinssaid that only a police investigation, with the power to seize documents and subpoena witnesses, could ascertain the scope of any Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to influence the 2016 referendum over Britain’s membership in the EU. Such an investigation, he said, would also ensure that future elections were protected from attack by foreign powers.
Last week, the Parliament Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which Collins chairs, capped an 18-month investigation into the use and manipulation of fake news on social media by issuing a detailed report which showed how Russian disinformation campaigns were an active threat to democracy, and highlighted links between Moscow and Arron Banks, the founder and main financier of Leave.EU, the group which championed Brexit, that is, British exit from the EU (see “Make tech companies liable for “harmful and misleading material” on their platforms,” HSNW, 1 August 2018).
The Times notes that, so far, the Mueller investigation of Russia’s 2016 meddling in the U.S. presidential election has brought 191 charges against 32 Russians and Americans, and three Russian companies.
In the United Kingdom, however, no criminal charges have been brought, and the responsibility for investigating Russia’s effort in support of Brexit has been assumed by MPs, the Electoral Commission, and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
“I think we do need a British Mueller,” Collins told the Times. “We have been operating at the limits of our powers in this inquiry. We’ve done things that no select committee has ever done before, but we do not have the powers that a law enforcement agency has. We do not have the power that Mueller has to demand to see bank records, private papers and other things.”
