Senator Wyden is Hell-bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia (Mother Jones)
Re-posting even though this is from Feb. 6 because I keep seeing threads asking what is happening with the Russia story, and very few other media outlets seem to have picked up on this. It got a lot of recs when I posted before, but things are happening so fast that it didn't stay up long.
It is really important info, and appears to be the most definitive info we have at this point.
"Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden says the Obama administration should have released more information before the election.
One of the most important men in Washington, DC, these days is Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. Sure, all senators are big shots. Even Democrats in the minority. But Wyden is in a special position: He can guarantee for the public whether or not an ongoing and (for now) behind-closed-doors investigation examining Vladimir Putin's operation to subvert the 2016 electionsand any possible ties between Donald Trump's circle and Russiais conducted thoroughly and legitimately.
(snip)
One cause of this seeming quietude is that after several weeks of political controversy regarding how best to investigate the matterwith Democrats joined by a small number of Republicans (that is, Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio) calling for a robust inquirythe Senate intelligence committee agreed to initiate its own probe. (The House intelligence community shortly followed suit.) After first being reluctant to include possible Trump-Russia ties in the investigation, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the Senate intelligence committee chair, relented. (Burr, no coincidence, was a member of the Trump campaign's national security advisory council.) But now that the intelligence committees are supposedly on the caseand with the FBI not discussing whatever inquiries it may be holding on this frontthe controversy (or scandal!) has been nudged to the back burner. This often happens in Washington: a secret investigation is launched, the story goes dark. (When Trump had a call with Putin after his first week in office, there was no indication from the White House that the new president had said anything to Putin about the Russian covert interference in the election. A senior Trump administration official told the Washington Post the chat had been "pleasant."
Enter Wyden. For the public, at this point, there is no way to tell if the intelligence committee is doing a good job investigating these dicey issues. Republicans on the committee certainly have an interest in not embarrassing, inconveniencing, or delegitimizing Trump. So it's up to Wyden and the other Democrats on the committee to monitor the probe and inform the citizenry if it ends up being a whitewash. And Wyden has already indicated that there is information on Trump-Russia ties within the US government that ought to be declassified, that he will push to keep the committee's inquiry on track, and that he will press to make as much of its findings as public as possible. In early January, during a rare public hearing of the Senate intelligence committee, which focused on the intelligence community's recently released report concluding Putin's regime had mounted the hacking to help Trump, Wyden pressed FBI Director James Comey on whether he would declassify information the bureau had obtained related to possible Trump-Russia connections and "release it to the American people" before Trump was inaugurated. No, Comey said, adding, "I can't talk about it." Wyden noted he was worried that if such information was not unveiled by then, it might never bemeaning, the incoming Trump administration would lock it up. And with this questioning, Wyden signaled that the FBI did indeed possess information on this subject.
Wyden failed to squeeze this material out of the FBI before Trump became president. But now he is in a position to tell the public if the Republican-led intelligence committee is doing an honest job with its all-important inquiry. A few days ago, I interviewed Wyden in his office and asked him about his role in this all-important project:
More:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/ron-wyden-intelligence-committee-russia-trump-investigation
This statement is very important: "People normally think things are classified and buttoned up for national reasons. I find it's far more likely to be political security than national security."
So glad to know what's going on with this and that Wyden is on it. Lots of us have been afraid it would get swept under the rug. Wyden is fighting for us. He's my senator and is definitely one of the good guys.
elleng
(130,126 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,096 posts)and he has said flat out he will not investigate anything to do with Fuckface Von Pussygrabber.
Fascists are running things.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)When is HE up for re-election? He needs to go the same way Eric Cantor did. Cantor thought he was bullet proof, too. Arrogant little wart got his arse handed to him.
enough
(13,235 posts)what happened to the Russia story on Feb 9. No doubt Corn is trying to keep our eyes on this ball.
Amaryllis
(9,523 posts)to interview Wyden, and it seems like a no-brainer to interview members of the Intelligence Committee. Although Wyden is progressive and I dont know about the others. As he said, there is a difference between national and political security, and the others may be more interested in political security. .
WheelWalker
(8,943 posts)Squinch
(50,773 posts)tparrett62
(268 posts)That McCain, Rubio, and Graham have the long knives out for Trump as well. He played pretty rough with each of them during the campaign, and I'm sure they all have their own agendas. Obviously no one wants to be the first to stick his neck out, but once the trickle starts, I imagine each of them will happily join in.