Slate "Good Riddance to the Craven, Dishonest, Deeply Stupid House Russia Investigation

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/good-riddance-to-the-craven-dishonest-deeply-stupid-house-russia-investigation.html

The Republican majority of the House Intelligence Committee announced on Monday that it was ending its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and would be issuing a number of findings favorable to President Donald Trump. The announcement—made without the knowledge of the Democratic members—contradicted the assessment of career officials and analysts in the intelligence community and confirmed that the committee never intended to do the job it was tasked with doing. It was a fitting end to a sham inquiry, one in which Republican leaders cravenly renounced their obligation to protect our country.

A one-page summary of the committee’s upcoming draft report absolves Trump and his campaign of collusion charges and disputes the intelligence community’s findings “with respect to Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump.” The findings were so premature and ludicrous that one of the GOP members who publicly backed the majority’s work contradicted that central conclusion in a television interview on Monday night, appearing not to know what was in the draft report he was supposed to be signing off on.

When told of the report’s finding that the Russians meddled in the election, but not to help Trump, Florida Rep. Tom Rooney expressed disbelief that such a blatantly partisan finding could possibly be in his own report. “I think it’s far more objective than that,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett during an astonishing interview “I just don’t know where this conclusion is coming from that we have concluded that we don’t see anything that the Russians were intending to hurt Hillary and help Trump.”

Where this conclusion came from, as Rooney should understand, is an unscrupulous committee that has done its work in total secrecy. “We disagree with the narrative that they were trying to help Trump,” the Republican leader of the House committee, Texas Rep. K. Michael Conaway, told reporters on Monday.

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last paragraph

That will be the legacy of Nunes and other Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee: When they were called on to uncover the truth about Russia and the Trump campaign, they chose to abnegate their duty. Good riddance to an investigation that was equal parts dishonest and pointless.