The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman announces that he will release transcripts of interviews with Donald Trump Jr. and others who attended that notorious Trump Tower meeting.

Courtesy of Politico:  

The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon release the transcript of its interview with Donald Trump Jr. as well as other witness testimony related to a controversial 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday. 

Grassley's comments Thursday come the day after two Democrats on the committee publicly pressed for the release of the panel's closed-door interview transcripts to special counsel Robert Mueller. Even as partisan disputes roil the House's Russia investigation, Grassley's alignment with Democrats on releasing the transcripts signals that the Senate — for now, at least — remains in a more collaborative mode. 

The committee is finished with work related to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, attended by President Donald Trump's eldest son and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Grassley said. "So, now it’s time to start releasing the transcripts of all witness interviews we have done related to that meeting. Let’s get them out there for everyone to see." 

In addition to Trump Jr., who sat for an interview in September, the committee also has received written responses from Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who said the Trump team pressed her for negative information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 meeting.

Well this should prove to be some interesting reading, assuming of course all the juicy parts have not be redacted.

Apparently the committee has still not managed to get Jared Kushner locked down for an interview, which is too bad because somehow I think he would crack the minute somebody turned off the air conditioning.

Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms that they will definitely still be interviewing Jared Kushner. Court date for Paul Manafort announced.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Friday that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will still be interviewed as part of the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Kushner is still going to be interviewed,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, said at a town hall meeting in western Iowa. “We’re getting some more documents, and that’s not done.”

Grassley assured constituents Friday that the interview would happen just days after expressing hesitation that his committee could easily secure a voluntary interview with Kushner after his Democratic counterpart, Senator Dianne Feinstein, published a 312-page transcript detailing a private interview with the founder of Fusion GPS, the organization behind the so-called Trump dossier. Grassley said Friday that the committee is just waiting on documents that Kushner has delayed in handing over before conducting the interview. 

“We’re going to do that,” Grassley said as an Iowan rebuked him over the committee’s five-month delay in interviewing Kushner. “Right now, Senator Feinstein is wanting more documents, and we wait until we get the documents, go through the documents, then we have a basis for the interviews that we’re going to have.”

While we are on the topic it appears that Paul Manafort and his associate , Richard Gates, have a shiny new court date to look forward to.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

U.S. Special Counsel in the Russia probe Robert Mueller will request a trial date of May 14 for Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort’s associate Richard Gates, Mueller said in a court filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Friday.

Just a reminder that while all of these distractions about Trump's racism and piggish behavior are dominating the news cycle that the wheels of justice are still slowly moving forward. 

Russian social media giant cooperating with the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning communications between Trump campaign and Russian nationals.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The Russian social media giant Vkontakte has given information to Senate investigators about contacts between an executive at the company and the Trump campaign, TPM has learned. 

The Russian tech firm appears to be cooperating with the Senate Judiciary Committee by providing documents related to communication between Russian nationals and Dan Scavino, a Trump campaign staffer who now works as the White House social media director. 

Vkontakte, a social network similar to Facebook, ranks as the most popular website in Russia and is owned by the publicly traded Mail.Ru. 

The nature of the documents obtained by the Committee isn’t clear, but previous reports in the press have detailed emails exchanged in 2016 between Konstantin Sidorkov, VKontakte’s director of partnership marketing, and Scavino.

Apparently Vkontakte is the Russian version of Facebook, and it is huge over there.

That sound you hear is the noose tightening even more.

Dianne Feinsten says that Senate Judiciary Committee is now building a case for obstructionism against Donald Trump. Update!

Courtesy of NBC News:  

A Senate investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election has revealed a possible obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said on "Meet The Press" Sunday. 

"The [Senate] Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice and I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice,” Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, said.

“I think we see this in the indictments, the four indictments, and pleas that have just taken place and some of the comments that are being made," Feinstein added, referencing the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, who face charges that include conspiracy and money laundering that were uncovered during Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation into potential links between Trump and Russia. Also charged in connection to the Mueller investigation are Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. 

"I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets. And I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director [James] Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said.

Gonna be kind of hard to call this all "fake news" when the courts issue a subpoena charging you with obstruction of justice, now isn't it?

Of course Trump's lawyers have a response to that as well:

John Dowd, President Trump's outside lawyer, outlined to me a new and highly controversial defense/theory in the Russia probe: A president cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice. 

The "President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case," Dowd claims. 

I'm sorry, what?

I swear it's like this Trump legal team all got their license to practice law from a box of  "Cracker Jacks."

Man so far December has rocked.

Update: Here is more from CNN:  

The White House's chief lawyer told President Donald Trump in January he believed then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled the FBI and lied to Vice President Mike Pence and should be fired, a source familiar with the matter said Monday. 

The description of the conversation raises new questions about what Trump knew about Flynn's situation when he urged then-FBI Director James Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn and whether anyone in the White House, including the President himself, attempted to obstruct justice. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians, a probe led by Comey until Trump fired him. 

White House counsel Donald McGahn told Trump that based on his conversation with then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates, he believed Flynn had not told the truth in his interview with the FBI or to Pence, the source said.

So Trump was told that Flynn had lied not only to Mike Pence, but also the FBI, but did not decide to fire him until the Washington Post story came out almost two weeks later. 

Damn, Donald Trump really IS bringing Christmas back!

Apparently the Senate Judiciary Committee is not really involved in the Russia investigation, instead they are focused on investigating the FBI.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The Senate Judiciary Committee has demanded documents on Russian meddling from the CIA, interviewed Donald Trump Jr. about his infamous Trump Tower meeting, and subpoenaed Paul Manafort, the president’s Kremlin-friendly former campaign chairman. 

In May, the committee held a subcommittee hearing called “Russian Interference in 2016 United States Election.” In June, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley issued a pair of press releases about his “Russia Probe.” One of them, produced with fellow committee Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, asked for documents from the FBI, citing the committee’s “investigations into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” 

But the Judiciary Committee is not, in fact, running a Trump-Russia investigation—at least, not a full-fledged one. 

A staffer for Grassley, speaking on the condition of anonymity to give his candid assessment, told The Daily Beast that the committee is instead engaged in routine oversight of the Justice Department—though under extraordinary circumstances.

“The Judiciary Committee is not running a comprehensive Trump/Russia investigation,” the staffer added. “Intel matters are the purview of the Intelligence Committees. The Judiciary Committee is engaged in the DOJ oversight for which it’s responsible and related issues that intersect with the Russian meddling in our democratic system.” 

The staffer also said Grassley’s team is not trying to determine whether anyone broke the law. 

“The Judiciary Committee does not have a prosecutorial function and does not conduct criminal investigations,” the staffer said, adding that committee investigators will share any evidence of crimes they find with law enforcement.

While I am a little unclear as to why the Judiciary Committee wanted to talk to Junior, it may help to explain why they subpoenaed two FBI agents and wanted to know if the FBI warned Donald Trump that some of his staff had ties to Russia.

Chairman Grassley also seems a little overly concerned that the FBI is relying too much on the Steele Dossier.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday asked the FBI to explain how foreign intelligence sharing has affected its use of an unverified dossier containing salacious allegations about President Donald Trump for its Russia investigation.

Noting that the dossier was passed on to the U.K. government according to lawyers representing author Christopher Steele, Grassley asked the FBI to clarify whether the document's contents could have been "surreptitiously funneled into U.S. intelligence streams through foreign intelligence sharing." 

Steele, a former British intelligence agent, initially compiled the dossier — replete with unproven details of alleged Russian efforts to compromise Trump — for the firm Fusion GPS. 

If the FBI had interpreted a foreign intelligence service's receipt of the Steele dossier as a de facto confirmation, "it would be alarming," Grassley wrote on Friday to FBI Director Christopher Wray. 

"Mr. Steele’s dossier allegations might appear to be 'confirmed' by foreign intelligence, rather than just an echo of the same 'research' that Fusion bought from Steele and that the FBI reportedly also attempted to buy from Steele."

So at this point one might ask themselves if Grassley and his committee were simply providing oversight to make sure that the FBI and Justice Department are doing their jobs effectively, or if the Iowa Republican is attempting to undermine the validity of any evidence connected to the Russian dossier?

I already have my opinion.

Simply put I do not trust any of these Republicans to REALLY work hard to get to a truth which might invalidate the election of their president, and worry that they are working instead to provide cover for Trump, or to slow down the process until the policies of the GOP agenda can be put firmly into place before he is removed from office.

Donald Trump Jr. testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton’s “fitness” to be president. 

(Yes the son of perhaps the most unfit individual to ever sit in the Oval Office, was worried that a woman who served as the First Lady of the country, was elected to two terms in the Senate, and who also served as America's Secretary of State, was not fit for office. Seriously?) 


But nothing came of the Trump Tower meeting, he said, and he was adamant that he never colluded with the Russian government’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election. 

In a prepared statement during an interview with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, the younger Mr. Trump said he was initially conflicted when he heard that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, might have damaging information about Mrs. Clinton. Despite his interest, he said, he always intended to consult with his own lawyers about the propriety of using any information that Ms. Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, gave him at the meeting. 

A copy of Mr. Trump’s statement was obtained by The New York Times.

Junior admitted that he sought legal counsel after the meeting which suggests that he knew what we was doing was wrong. 

“To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out,” he said. “Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.”

Junior also claims that the meeting was  disappointing: 

“As it later turned out, my skepticism was justified. The meeting provided no meaningful information and turned out not to be about what had been represented.”

I guess he felt it would have been so much more productive if he received illegally obtained dirt on Hillary instead.

Junior also stated that his response "I love it" was simply a colloquial way of saying that he appreciated the fact that his friend, Rob Goldstone, had reached out to him.

He did not elaborate to explain why he would love it even more in the summer.

The Post also mentions that Junior's story about this meeting has changed multiple times, the difference this time is that this version is being told to the Senate Judiciary Committee, so if Trump is lying or changed his story later, he could be looking at some jail time.

And that is important to remember, since according to CNN Junior also provided this response: 

Trump Jr. was explicitly asked whether he either took any of the Russian participants in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting to see his father -- now President Donald Trump -- or whether he told his father about the meeting after, sources said. He insisted he did neither. 

Asked why his father promised the next day that dirt was coming on Hillary Clinton, Trump Jr. told Senate staffers that's just the way his father talks.

I think that is evidence that he already perjured himself right there. 

The research firm tied to the infamous Russian dossier hands over thousands of documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

A research firm tied to a dossier of salacious allegations involving President Donald Trump is turning over thousands of pages of documents to a congressional committee. 

That’s according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrangement had not yet been publicly announced. 

The firm, Fusion GPS, was turning over records Wednesday in response to a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel is one of several investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 

The firm hired a British intelligence officer who compiled a dossier of allegations involving Trump and his ties to Russia. 

The committee also plans to hear privately from Glenn Simpson, a co-founder of the firm.

Well this is interesting.

Ever since Bill Browder accused Fusion GPS of working with the Russians to overturn the Magnitsky Act the Republicans have been working to make that connection.

According to Fusion they have nothing to hide.

Statement from Fusion GPS, which produced the Steele dossier, re: accusations it was hired by Russians: pic.twitter.com/8UKoz7l21s

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) July 27, 2017

However if indeed these documents contain information about the dossier, including the sources, this could open an entirely different can of worms.

In the meantime the Right Wing media is going after Fusion GPS like rabid wolves, which leads me to believe they are quite concerned with what might bubble to the surface. 

P.S. The folks at Heavy.com have five facts about Fusion GPS that you might find interesting.