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Keller @ Large: Jill Stein Defends Appearance At Russian Dinner With Putin

BOSTON (CBS) - The probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has hit close to home.

Dr. Jill Stein of Lexington, the Green Party's 2016 presidential nominee and a two-time former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, and her campaign apparatus are under investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), the committee's chairman, tells Buzzfeed they're looking at "collusion with the Russians."

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, told the website "Ms. Stein was at that somewhat infamous dinner with Gen. Flynn and Vladimir Putin, and also has been a long term defender of Mr. Assange and Wikileaks which clearly was involved in dumping some disparaging information."

What was she doing at Putin's table at a December 2015 banquet honoring the Russian propaganda channel RT?

"I was at a conference and if you want to know what I said at the conference, it's all on the web, where I called out the Russian government as well as the United States for these outrageous wars in the Middle East that are bankrupting both of our countries, only expanding the cause of terrorism," she told WBZ-TV Friday.

So why does she believe she was seated at the same table as Putin and Flynn?

"I was there along with Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City and the former Justice party candidate, who was also heard on RT as a peace advocate.  I was there along with Jesse Ventura, the governor of Minnesota, who was also a major peace proponent," Stein said.

But they weren't at the same table as Putin.

"You know who was at the Putin table? The foreign diplomats who were in the first panel and you can hear that first panel and hear everything I said, how I called out both the Russian government and the United State government for our endless war on terror," Stein said.

jon keller jill stein
Jon Keller interviews Jill Stein, January 5, 2017. (WBZ-TV)

Stein answers these questions and much more in our interview Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WBZ-TV News.

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