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.
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