Seriously, did Paul Ryan consciously select the dumbest members of the GOP caucus to serve on HPSCI? https://t.co/xpcaQ8dOIP
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 26, 2018
Six GOP chairmen of key panels tell us they see little reason to dig into Trump family finances – or made no commitment to do so. They call it a fishing expedition, or something in Mueller’s purview. Ds say it’s essential to Russia probes. w/ @jeremyherb. https://t.co/U2G0h7RONe
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 26, 2018
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy, who is also a top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has yet to issue a subpoena as chairman since he took the oversight gavel last June. The South Carolina Republican also brushed off calls by Democrats to pursue the money trail as part of the Russia investigation.
“Isn’t that what Bob Mueller is doing?” Gowdy told CNN when asked about the matter…
In addition to the calls for subpoenaing Deutsche Bank, Democrats point to the comments from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, who told the House Intelligence Committee last year that it should probe Trump’s real estate deals in Florida and New Jersey, as well as Kushner’s real estate dealings in New Jersey.
Democrats have also raised an interest in foreign transactions in places that include the Cayman Islands and Cyprus, particularly surrounding former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. In April 2017, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois traveled to Cyprus to investigate how Russians used money laundering, a trip that came following an Associated Press report that Treasury officials obtained information regarding financial payments Manafort may have received through Cypriot banks…
Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has for months been frustrated with the lack of access to Treasury FinCEN documents. The Oregon Democrat recently fired off a letter for more Treasury documents, this time to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings.
But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declined to join Wyden in these efforts. And he has rejected Wyden’s requested to review Trump’s tax returns in a private session.
“We’re not going to do that,” Hatch said in the Capitol. “He doesn’t want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he’s right.”…
"I don't see the link at this stage," said Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the House Russia investigation. "Deutsche Bank is a German bank — I don't see the nexus." https://t.co/8IDjWUZOxF
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 26, 2018
A German bank fined half a billion dollars in NYS and the UK last year for involvement in Russian money laundering. And which the President is in debt to to the tune of $360 million. https://t.co/EA2p8OpFGT
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 26, 2018
Donald Trump's Russia Accomplices | Crooked Media https://t.co/FW6SKqsJxg
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) February 26, 2018
…Thanks to Schiff, we can fairly surmise that McConnell and Ryan knew much of what the intelligence community knew—that Russian operatives were sabotaging Clinton with the knowledge and complicity of the Trump campaign, and the connivance of specific Trump aides. And yet when the Obama administration, in the weeks before the election, asked the leaders of both parties to join a united front against Russian efforts to tip the scales of a U.S. election, “at least two GOP lawmakers [were] reluctant to accede to the White House requests.”…
We can’t know for certain whether Ryan was one of the other GOP lawmakers who joined McConnell in extorting the Obama administration this way. But we know he didn’t take a stand against McConnell; and we know he understood full well that Russia was engaged in an influence operation on Trump’s behalf long before the election…
It has been pretty apparent all along what these GOP leaders were up to, but until now it was impossible to be certain that McConnell et al weren’t healthily skeptical of questionable intelligence. Now we can say with a high degree of confidence that they knew basically everything and still stood in the way of efforts to do anything about it. It’s the height of depravity for Trump to shrug off Russian efforts to help him win the election after basking in them on the campaign trail, then pillory Obama for not doing more to stop it all. But if that is his position—his excuse for leaving the country defenseless—then the fact that Ryan and McConnell were his witting accomplices, working to assure the Russian operation ran its course, has to be revisited, too.
Meanwhile, of course, they can always get worse…
Nunes this morning told Fox Business he sees no reason for Sessions to remain recused from Russia probe: “I don't know why he would be recused from this … I don't see why because there has been no evidence of any collusion ….”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 26, 2018
Russiagate / Repub Venality Open Thread: Easy Remit, for Willing AccomplicesPost + Comments (26)