Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is apparently behind attempts to sabotage investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Has this ever happened before?

Burr and Warner

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were behind the leak of private text messages between the Senate panel’s top Democrat and a Russian-connected lawyer, according to two congressional officials briefed on the matter. 

Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s Republican chairman, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat, were so perturbed by the leak that they demanded a rare meeting with Speaker Paul D. Ryan last month to inform him of their findings. They used the meeting with Mr. Ryan to raise broader concerns about the direction of the House Intelligence Committee under its chairman, Representative Devin Nunes of California, the officials said. 

To the senators, who are overseeing what is effectively the last bipartisan investigation on Capitol Hill into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the leak was a serious breach of protocol and a partisan attack by one intelligence committee against the other. 

The messages between Mr. Warner and Adam Waldman, a Washington lawyer, show that the senator tried for weeks to arrange a meeting with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who assembled a dossier of salacious claims about connections between Mr. Trump, his associates and Russia. The Senate committee has had difficulty making contact with Mr. Steele, whom it views as a key witness. And Mr. Waldman, who knew Mr. Steele, presented himself as a willing partner.

Those texts, which were sent via a secure messaging application, were then leaked to Fox News who quickly used them in an attempt to discredit Senator Warner.

And they even called in a little help to do so.

Wow! -Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch. Warner did not want a “paper trail” on a “private” meeting (in London) he requested with Steele of fraudulent Dossier fame. All tied into Crooked Hillary.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2018

So to be clear, Devin Nunes revealed private correspondence between a sitting Senator and his source to a national media outlet, and then the president of the United States used that information to publicly attack a fellow Republican and attempt to discredit an investigation into his own wrongdoing.

And all of this happened only weeks after the House Republicans published that erroneous memo claiming that the FBI relied only on the dossier and some media reports in order to get a FISA warrant to put Carter Page under surveillance.

Which of course is also a lie. 

We are so far down the rabbit hole now.

Rachel Maddow explains what we know is factual about the Russian dossier, and that despite what they say the Senate Intelligence Committee can talk to Christopher Steele essentially anytime they want.

This came on last night right after I had finished reading through some rather ignorant comments on my post yesterday about the Senate Intelligence Committee.

So here was Rachel doing her deep dive to explain all of the things we know that are factual about the Russian dossier, and also putting to rest the allegation from Richard Burr that Christopher Steele will not return his phone calls.

If you ever had any doubts about the importance of this dossier I think Rachel does an excellent job of explaining, in detail, what makes it so important, and how hard people are working to damage its credibility or make the dossier itself the scandal.

Now let me take a moment to point out that during the 2016 election IM received an unusual amount of visits from Russia.

This started well before we knew much about the Russian interference and at first I was kind of puzzled.

Typically the most visits come from the US and the second highest number are from Canada, and way back in third place is usually Australia. 

But in the spring of 2016 that changed and suddenly the second highest number of visits were coming from Russia, and now I think we all know why that was the case.

Well now that is happening again.

So if you read a comment on IM where somebody is working a little too hard to call into question the validity of the Russian investigations, or poo pooing this dossier, just keep in mind that they may have an agenda. 

Top two members of Senate Intelligence Committee say that issue of collusion remains an open question, while Mueller team takes over investigation on the Russian dossier. Update!

Courtesy of ABC News:

The top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee gave a detailed update on the panel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election today, saying that the "issue of collusion" with Russia remains open. 

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the committee, went through a number of issues that the investigators have looked into and the breadth of their search. 

Burr said the "general consensus" of those involved with the Russian investigation, they "trust the conclusions" of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The assessment concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to undermine the U.S. election and favor then-candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. 

Burr said that the committee believes "the Russian intelligence service is determined, clever," and something that campaigns should be wary of in any future elections. 

Regarding possible collusion, Burr said, "We continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses." 

Ranking committee member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said that there is a "large consensus that they hacked into political files, released those files in an effort to influence the election. We think they [Russian actors] actively tried to at least test the vulnerabilities of 21 states electoral systems and we feel that they used the social media firms both in terms of paid advertising, and what I believe is more problematic ... created false accounts." 

The Republican, Richard Burr, also stated rather emphatically that "not vote totals were affected," but I would suggest at this time that that is also an open question.

New evidence is coming out almost every day, and I would not be at all surprised to learn that some of the polling stations WERE successfully hacked and votes were altered.

According to WaPo this presser was actually a compromise as the Republicans wanted to release an "interim report," and the Democrats stopped for being premature.

Apparently the Republicans are being pressured to put an end to these investigations to protest Trump, and continue moving their agenda forward.

Of course there is also the Special Counsel, and it does not appear that he is at all interested in ending his investigation.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The special counsel investigating whether Russia tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election has taken over FBI inquiries into a former British spy's dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump's campaign and associates, sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.

It seems that this dossier is the thing that really puts a fright into Trump and his associates.

For good reason as a number of the allegations have proven accurate.

And now with Mueller on the case, perhaps there is much more that will come out as completely accurate as well.

Update: Breaking news reveals that the Mueller team has already spoken to dossier author Christopher Steele.

Now we're talking.

Step aside House Intelligence Committee, here come the adults in the Senate to show you how an investigation is done.

Intel chairman says Russia hired more than 1000 hackers to create fake, anti-Clinton news in key states, won by Trump. @jeffpeguescbs, now pic.twitter.com/mmRBcE4qCu

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) March 29, 2017

Courtesy of TPM: 

One thing was made crystal clear in a Wednesday press briefing on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election: this investigation is a very big and very serious deal. 

In an hour-long appearance, committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice-Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) framed their probe as one of most ambitious investigative efforts ever taken on by a congressional committee. Burr, a 22-year veteran of Capitol Hill, framed the investigation as “one of the biggest” he’s seen in his tenure in Washington, D.C. 

Warner concurred, saying, “When we started this, we saw the scope, what was involved, I said it was the most important thing I have ever taken on in my public life. I believe that more firmly now.” 

Their solemn assurances to investigate the full scope of Russia’s involvement, to look into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian officials, and to produce a truly bipartisan report on their findings offered a stark contrast from the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation, led by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). The House’s probe came to a standstill this week over Nunes’ overly close relationship with the President, and he and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) haven’t appeared together publicly in days.

According to CNN the Senator Intelligence Committee already has a slate of witnesses ready to be called: 

Burr and Warner say they have 20 witnesses they plan to interview and have scheduled interviews with five of them so far. The committee leaders said that they are happy that President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort have agreed to testify, but they have not yet decided when they will bring them in. 

"To date, we have made 20 requests for individuals to be interviewed by the committee," Burr said. "As we stand here today, five are already scheduled on the books, and probably within the next 10 days the remaining 15 will have a scheduled date for those individuals to be interviewed by our staff. We anticipate inviting additional individuals to come and be interviewed, and ultimately some of those interviewed individuals may turn into private or public hearings by the committee, but yet to be determined."

It is rumored that one of the witnesses they have in mind is  Christopher Steele, that former MI-6 agent responsible for that Russian dossier.

If true that puts the Senate WAY ahead of the House in getting to the bottom of what happened in 2016.

I have to imagine that Trump's orange tinged assholes slammed right shut as he watched that news conference yesterday.