READ IT: Adam Schiff releases all declassified transcripts related to investigation into Trump's Rus
Source: raw story
READ IT: Adam Schiff releases all declassified transcripts related to investigation into Trumps Russia scandal
Published 1 min ago on May 7, 2020
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has wanted to release all of the information heard in a classified setting about President Donald Trumps involvement in the Russia scandal, but the director of national intelligence had been dragging their feet on declassifying it.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) went on Fox News Thursday, to blame Schiff for the slow release. Schiff, along with the staff, have been off of Capitol Hill due to the Washington, D.C. stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. Schiff advocated for the release of the transcripts, but that wasnt enough for Nunes, who whined about it taking too long.
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In a statement released Thursday, Schiff released everything that had been declassified by the DNI about the investigation into President Donald Trumps collusion with Russia.
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/read-it-adam-schiff-releases-all-declassified-transcripts-related-to-investigation-into-trumps-russia-scandal/
Lot to go through.
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Russia Investigation Transcripts and Documents
Materials from the Committee's Investigation into Russian Active Measures
In 2017 and 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) undertook an investigation into Russias interference campaign targeting the 2016 U.S. election. The Committees investigation came on the heels of an Intelligence Community assessment, which found:
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russias goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.
Democrats on the Committee affirmed that judgement, as did Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee. Throughout its investigation, the Committee uncovered significant evidence of Trump campaign efforts to seek, make use of, and cover up Russian help in the 2016 presidential election. To date, two witnesses have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms for lying and attempting to obstruct the Committees investigation.
Ultimately, this pattern of misconduct and deceit continued when President Trump once again sought to coerce a foreign government into providing him illicit assistance with his reelection campaign, this time from Ukraine. For his efforts, President Trump was impeached in the House and became the first ever U.S. President to to receive bipartisan votes to convict in the Senate.
As part of its commitment to transparency, today the Committee is releasing fifty-seven transcripts of witness interviews during the course of the Russia inquiry, as well as additional relevant material, so that every American can see the facts and decide for themselves:
Is this conduct ok?
After releasing the transcripts, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated:
From 2017 to 2018, the House Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election. Despite the many barriers put in our way by the then-Republican Majority, and attempts by some key witnesses to lie to us and obstruct our investigation, the transcripts that we are releasing today show precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct.
Unfortunately, the Presidents misconduct did not end with his election in 2016 or his attempts to cover up that effort. Rather, in the course of his presidency, he continued to seek illicit foreign help in his campaign by coercing another nation, Ukraine, to smear his opponent. After making use of Russias help with his first presidential campaign, President Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to help him in 2020 by withholding critical military aid to that country and a coveted head of state meeting.
These acts ultimately led to the Presidents impeachment in the House of Representatives and the first bipartisan vote in the Senate in our history in support of a conviction of a President of the United States. The Presidents efforts to make use of the help of a foreign power to win an election, and then to extort yet another foreign power to try to win again, represent a grave threat to the health of our democracy now and in the future.
The transcripts released today richly detail evidence of the Trump campaigns efforts to invite, make use of, and cover up Russias help in the 2016 presidential election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller identified in his report similar, and even more extensive, evidence of improper links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. A bipartisan Senate investigation also found that Russia sought to help the candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016.
While Special Counsel Mueller found insufficient evidence to prove the crime of criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, he refused to draw any conclusion on the issue of collusion contrary to false representations made by Attorney General Bill Barr and others. There is ample evidence of the corrupt interactions between the Trump campaign and Russia, both direct and circumstantial, in the record:
In June of 2016, a Russian delegation offered dirt on Donald Trumps rivalpresidential candidate Hillary Clintonto the highest levels of the Trump campaign, and did so in writing. Donald Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted that offer, and then set up a secret meeting between the Russian delegation, himself, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to discuss that illicit help. When news of the meeting was about to break, Trump and his son drafted a false statement for the press together in order to cover up the true purpose of the meeting. This written offer of illegal help by the Russians and its acceptance by the Presidents campaign, and the secret meeting that followed, provide some of the most damning and direct evidence of the Presidents to make use of Russias assistance in the election.
Throughout the summer of 2016, the Trump campaign and candidate Trump himself repeatedly sought damaging information on Clinton from Russia. In July of 2016, Trump publicly called on Russia to hack Clintons emails, and as the Special Counsel found that night, Russian military intelligence officers did precisely that. Our transcripts show that numerous individuals affiliated with or working for the Trump campaign were in communication with individuals offering help to set up private backchannels with the Russian government.
Multiple witnesses sought to hide and cover up illicit activity related to Russia during the presidential campaign. One-time campaign advisor and close confidant to Trump, Roger Stone, has been sentenced to prison for lying to the Committee about his advanced knowledge of impending WikiLeaks releases of Clinton campaign information. Former personal attorney to Trump, Michael Cohen, was imprisoned in part on charges that he lied to the Committee about Trumps role in arranging a lucrative business deal in Russia during the course of his campaign and early presidency. The Presidents pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow potentially the most lucrative deal of his life while lying to the American people about his business interests in Russia, provided the most serious counterintelligence risk to the United States.
Another associate of Trump, Erik Prince, misled our Committee about his efforts to take part in a secret backchannel with a senior Russian government official while he was unofficially supporting the Trump campaign.
And the transcripts also show that during the transition period in late 2016, the incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn undertook efforts to undermine U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed by the previous administration over Russias interference in the election on Trumps behalf. Flynn would later lie to the FBI about these efforts, and the President would try to pressure then-FBI Director Comey to shut down any investigation into Flynn. It would take the firing of then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the later appointment of an unscrupulous Attorney General, Bill Barr, for the President to achieve his aim of seeking dismissal of the case against Flynn, and only after Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
Despite taking part in this investigation and hearing these facts first-hand, the transcripts reveal how House Republicans used witness interviews not to gain the facts, but to press President Trumps false narrative of no collusion, no obstruction. It would be a pattern they would follow throughout the Russia investigation and into the Presidents subsequent Ukraine misconduct. To that end, House Republicans sought to use the Committees Russia investigation to undermine the Intelligence Communitys assessment that Russia sought to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. That assessment has been affirmed by this Committees Democrats, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, and Special Counsel Mueller.
These transcripts should have been released long before now, but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information, rather than White House political interests. Only now, and during a deadly pandemic, has the President released his hold on this damning information and evidence.
Like the Ukraine investigation that would follow it, the investigation into the Trump campaigns effort to seek and utilize Russian help in 2016 and to obstruct justice, reveal a President who believes that he is above the law. But we are a country where the truth still matters and where right still matters. Our investigation into the Trump campaign, and the evidence we uncovered despite formidable obstruction, affirms that.
Read the full statement here.
Correspondence
Letter from HPSCI to Acting Director of Intelligence Richard Grenell (May 7, 2020)
Correspondence between HPSCI and Office of Director of National Intelligence and White House (November 2018 - May 2020)
Interview Transcripts
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jimfields33
(15,693 posts)Then why would Nunez demand the release? Sounds odd.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,546 posts)Continual muddying of the waters and the 'hey look over there' trick... ...
BigmanPigman
(51,567 posts)doooooooing what he does best, talking out of his ass. He doesn't know whether he should wind his ass or scratch his watch. Mooooooooo........
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)that in fact Russia did influence the 2016 election.
Barr is committing crimes against The United State of America. Whereas, that jerk in WH is also committing crimes against the USA as well plus Crimes against Humanity.
donkeypoofed
(2,187 posts)stillcool
(32,626 posts)they're expanding their power. They have inserted donors and industry executives in ever federal agency. They have given free reign to corporations while eliminating as much societal protections as they can. They've corrupted the Justice Department, while stacking the courts with right-wing judges...they just need to expand their control of state governments, and voting systems. With the courts on their side nothing they do is illegal, and they have plenty of state governments towing the line. Who's going to do anything about it?
riversedge
(70,084 posts)Read it.
There should be hell to pay for high treason.
oldsoftie
(12,491 posts)Of course the Trumpers say Putin was just "joking" because we all know what a prankster he is after all.
Mr. Evil
(2,825 posts)If these are the 'declassified' transcripts, should that mean that there are 'classified' transcripts that won't be released?