Tag: United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

As Congress awaits the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, said it “gives us confidence back in our democracy.” Turner made the comment on “America’s Newsroom” Monday, saying confidence returned because "it says that there was no collusion and we know certainly that we did not have the aspect of the Trump campaign doing that.” He added, “I do think there should be a concern, though, in knowing what has happened with respect to the Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee-funded dossier, where they actually hired a retired former intelligence officer that was British for the purposes of talking to Russians and then use that information in a way where the government used it to undertake surveillance on the other campaign. I think that's absolutely wrong and I think that's a threat.” Mueller's much-anticipated report is set to be released to the public and Congress with redactions on Thursday morning, the Justice Department announced Monday. The news comes despite mounting calls from Democrats to first release the report to Congress without redactions. “We gave Mueller the assignment of to come to a conclusion and that’s certainly what he’s done, is finding no collusion,” Turner said in response to Democrats' demands to first release the report to Congress. “One thing is going to be important, though, is that I think it would be absolutely wrong for portions of the report to be released to Congress and not released to the public because already we have people like Adam Schiff and his minions standing up and saying that the Barr statement says that there was no criminal collusion found. Well actually, the quote directly from the report says that they were unable to establish a collusion at all. So if they are going to twist words that we all can read, we certainly don't want to give select access and then let others tell us what it says.” Last month, Mueller submitted his almost 400-page report to the Justice Department for review by the attorney general and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In a letter to Congress, Attorney General Bill Barr relayed some of the primary findings of the report, stating the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. Barr said he identified four areas of the report that he believed should be redacted including grand jury material and information the intelligence community believes would reveal intelligence sources and methods.

Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • The Federal Reserve has halted rate increases. Tax cuts and tariffs have taken hold. Attempts to rewrite the global rules of trade are underway. President Trump got what he wanted on the economy — but it may not last, and the president must now prove the naysayers wrong about the future. • The first House Intelligence Committee hearing since the special counsel completed his report began with Republicans demanding the resignation of Adam B. Schiff, the committee’s chairman. It only went downhill from there. It’s the first case where the United States asserted that foreign control of a social media app could have national security implications. • In a case that exposed the government’s embarrassing failure to secure its secrets, a 54-year-old former National Security Agency contractor pleaded guilty to taking secret documents home in a deal likely to put him in prison for nine years.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff rejected reports that no more Mueller indictments are coming, and suggested he would call the special counsel before a House panel if necessary to learn what is in the report. “If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee, I would imagine the judiciary committee may call the attorney general if necessary,” the California Democrat said during an interview on CNN. “At the end of the day, the department is under a statutory obligation to provide our committee with any information regarding significant intelligence activities, including counterintelligence. And it's hard to imagine anything more significant than what Bob Mueller has been investigating. “We have a right to be informed, and we will demand to be informed about it.” I think it’s entirely possible if not likely that there will be other indictments — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff Schiff was then asked if he would be satisfied if “the most sensitive information” obtained by Mueller was only shared with the so-called “gang of eight.” “No, it would not suffice. Schiff did not answer host Wolf Blitzer’s question as to whether or not any potential testimony would be public or behind closed doors. “Well, what it means is that the office of the special counsel, which is essentially a contract attorney to the Justice Department, that that office won’t be bringing any further indictments,” he said. “We are confident that there is no finding of collusion by the president and this underscores what the president has been saying from the beginning -- that he did nothing wrong.” Giuliani’s statement comes after Mueller transmitted his report to Attorney General William Barr. “This is a grand slam for President Trump. If Barr says he can brief Congress by this weekend, that means he has nothing,” said Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who has advised Trump on the probe.

From the president’s checks to a resolution against hate, it’s been a busy week in American politics. Six such checks were provided to The Times, showing that the president was managing affairs of state while, allegedly, paying to keep his personal secrets out of the public eye. Mr. Cohen gave documents to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that he said backed up his claim that Mr. Trump’s lawyers helped to shape false testimony he delivered to Congress in 2017. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent requests for information to 81 agencies, individuals and entities tied to Mr. Trump on Monday, opening a broad inquiry into possible obstruction, corruption and abuse of power. Mr. Trump signaled that he did not intend to cooperate with the requests, calling the investigation a “disgrace to our country.” Additional Reading • House Democrats Are Flooding Trump World With Demands. Representative Ilhan Omar again came under scrutiny for comments about Israel, after asking why it was “O.K. But a generational debate ensued between older Democrats in the House leadership and their young, more liberal counterparts, many of whom said Ms. Omar was being unfairly singled out. After much back and forth, the resolution became one condemning “hateful expressions of intolerance” against “African-Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants and others.” It passed by a 407-to-23 vote on Thursday. Some join the 2020 race, others opt out (and one can’t decide). But Mr. Biden, who would give the Democratic field a clear front-runner, has yet to make a final decision.

Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • One of President Trump’s goals was to narrow the country’s trade deficit. • Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, said that lawyers for several people facing scrutiny in the investigations into the Trump campaign and presidency had contacted him to see whether the president would pardon their clients. • Rusty after years in the minority, House Democrats have stomped on their own messages, fallen prey to Republican maneuvers and now are in open battle over an anti-Israel comment from a freshman representative from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar. • House Democratic leaders have put off a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry after a backlash from rank-and-file lawmakers who said Ms. Omar was being unfairly singled out. • Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona and the first woman in the Air Force to fly in combat, said that she was raped by a superior officer while serving, an experience that almost led her to quit the military. • The Justice Department is forming a task force to root out abuse of foreign lobbying restrictions, which prosecutors — most notably the special counsel — have targeted with renewed vigor in recent years. • The Trump administration formally ended rules requiring the government to annually make public its estimates of civilian bystanders killed in airstrikes outside conventional war zones. • Trade talks between the United States and the European Union are off to a rocky start, with the two sides clashing over what should be on the table in the first place.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on Sunday said there are "enormous amounts of evidence" linking the Trump campaign to Russia — the same day House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said there's "direct evidence" of collusion between the two. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee disputed on NBC's "Meet the Press" recent remarks by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. claiming that the committee hasn't found "factual evidence" of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Warner, referring to "the litany of what we know," said, "the ongoing negotiations about Trump Tower, well into the campaign, I believe the fact that Mr. Trump knew about the dump of the Wikileaks material, the fact that clearly the meeting at Trump Tower meeting which was not described appropriately, in terms of offering dirt," were all evidence. "There’s no one that could factually say there’s not plenty of evidence of collaboration or communications between Trump Organization and Russians." Warner, however, did note that he'd be withholding full judgment until the Senate Intelligence Committee finishes its investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign. Meantime on Sunday, House Intel Chair Schiff said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he believes "there is direct evidence in the emails from the Russians through their intermediary offering dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of what is described in writing as the Russian government effort to help elect Donald Trump." “They offer that dirt. There is an acceptance of that offer in writing from the president’s son, Don Jr., and there is overt acts and furtherance of that… That to me is direct evidence," Schiff added. The Senate committee's investigation is separate from that of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is also probing Russian election interference, questions of collusion and possible obstruction of justice by the Trump campaign. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Good Monday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • Mike Pompeo will face his greatest test as secretary of state this week, when he accompanies President Trump to a summit meeting with North Korea’s leaders: He must keep Mr. Trump from giving away U.S. leverage on denuclearization while remaining in Mr. Trump’s good graces. • Vice President Mike Pence is commonly seen around Washington as a mute helpmate to a bombastic president. On foreign soil, he has toyed with the idea of branching out — just not too far. • Mr. Trump delayed his own deadline to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, citing “substantial progress” during a week of trade talks in Washington between American and Chinese officials. • Last week, home for the first district workweek of their term, moderate Democrats got to see firsthand how the voices of a small but vocal number of liberal lawmakers are reverberating in far more marginal districts. • Even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill “Medicare for all.” • Representative Adam B. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that House Democrats were prepared to go to court to force the release of the final report from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, if it were not made public. • Who is Konstantin Kilimnik, and what did he and Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, discuss in 2016? Here’s the story behind the Russian operative pivotal to the special counsel investigation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted President Trump’s suspension of a 32-year-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia on Friday as dangerous and irresponsible, and warned it could prompt a new arms race. Pompeo said that if Russia isn’t abiding by the treaty, then neither will the U.S., starting a six-month countdown until the agreement officially ends. But Pelosi, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee before she became speaker for the first time a dozen years ago, said the administration should have tried to work through its differences with Russia before moving to kill the treaty. But to throw it out like that is a gift to Vladimir Putin.” Pelosi’s fear is that, freed of having to even appear to abide by the treaty, Putin will embark on an arms race in which Russia will put missiles even closer to NATO nations. “What do the Russians have on the president politically, financially or personally that he is their handmaiden?” Pelosi said. She also expressed concern about Friday’s move in light of a U.S. intelligence threat assessment that Russia and China “are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s.” The assessment said Russia and China are growing stronger “across all domains,” including in their quest for “technological and military superiority.” Pelosi said she is concerned that Trump is ignoring what intelligence agencies are reporting about Russia and other U.S. adversaries. He doesn’t have to know the facts, so he doesn’t have to act upon them.” Asked by reporters at the White House about Pelosi’s concerns about an arms race, Trump said, “Honestly, I don’t think she has a clue, I really don’t. She doesn’t know and I wish she did because she’s running this country so badly. Trump told the New York Times in an interview posted late Thursday that “if she doesn’t approve a wall,” congressional negotiations about border security are “just a waste of money and time and energy.” Having failed to get Democrats to give him money for a wall during the 35-day partial shutdown of the government, Trump is now broadly hinting that he’ll try to secure funding by declaring a national emergency on the southern border. Pelosi told The Chronicle that the president’s comments were “classic Trump ... by projecting his own shortcomings in terms of this wall discussion onto me.” “The president’s comments are par for the course for him.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You are saying you never spoke to Julian Assange, never contacted WikiLeaks, never spoke to any of that to President Trump? And there's no reference in that email to John Podesta's emails either. It's not as if those things had not been widely published in early August. STONE: We have not. STEPHANOPOULOS: None at all? Did you do any dirty tricks during the Trump campaign? STEPHANOPOULOS: It's self-proclaimed. STEPHANOPOULOS: Did anyone in the Trump campaign cross the line? I’ve had no discussion regarding a pardon. STONE: I’ve had no such discussions.

(CNN)Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources with knowledge tell CNN. Cohen's claim would contradict repeated denials by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., their lawyers and other administration officials who have said that the President knew nothing about the Trump Tower meeting until he was approached about it by The New York Times in July 2017. Cohen alleges that he was present, along with several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians' offer by Trump Jr. By Cohen's account, Trump approved going ahead with the meeting with the Russians, according to sources. A source familiar with Cohen's House testimony said he did not testify that Trump had advance knowledge. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!" Those denials were repeatedly issued by Trump, his attorney Jay Sekulow, Trump Jr., Futerfas and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. One week later, Trump repeated that he "didn't know anything about the meeting" because "nobody told me" about it. But perhaps the highest-stakes denial was given by Trump Jr. in his testimony last year to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "He wasn't aware of it," Trump Jr. told lawmakers, referring to his father's knowledge of the meeting. Axios reported that Bannon does not have first-hand knowledge about whether Trump Jr. told his father, and Bannon later said his "treasonous" remark was directed at Manafort and not Trump Jr.