Jill Stein warns against Senate Intel Committee trying to ‘criminalize’ people with Russian background

Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein on Thursday explained her opposition to turning over certain documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee in its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“The only thing we’re not turning over is what the Constitution says the government should never ask of us,” Stein said on Fox News.

She explained that she would turn over her campaign’s communications with the Russian government and Russian media. However, her campaign has declined to comply with a request to release communication records with “all people of Russian descent.”

{mosads}Stein warned that giving the committee those documents when they aren’t relevant to the investigation could risk unfairly implicating Russians. 

“The point we’re making is that there is no way to know who has Russian background,” Stein said. 

She likened it to when Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II, saying she doesn’t want to “criminalize a cast of people and cast suspicion.” 

She added that she is not asserting her Fifth Amendment privilege, and that none of the documents she has criminally implicate her or her campaign.

Stein, who represented the Green Party in the 2016 presidential election along with running mate Ajamu Baraka, won just over 1 percent of the popular vote nationwide.

She has drawn interest from investigators for her attendance at a 2015 dinner in Moscow hosted by the Russian state media company RT. 

At the event, she shared a table with Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn. Stein has downplayed the significance of the dinner.