Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ranking Member of the CIA Subcommittee for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, condemned the Republican Russia report released on Friday as the cover-up that both Trump and Putin wanted.
Swalwell points out that Republicans never allowed the investigation to actually look for collusion, so to announce there was no collusion is an outright fabrication. They took witnesses at their word and refused to subpoena backup documents and, is the norm now for Republican “investigations”, refused to release full transcripts of the testimony.
“The Trump-Russia report released by the House Intelligence Committee’s Republican majority is an incomplete, inaccurate report of what the Russians did and who they worked with, solely intended to cover up evidence damaging to President Donald Trump,” the Democrat wrote in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA.
“This report concludes that there was no collusion, but the Republicans never allowed the investigation to look for collusion. They refused to use subpoena power to obtain documents and testimony we needed to protect our democracy and tell the American people how we were attacked. Instead, they ran a ‘take them at their word’ investigation that showed no willingness to test witness testimony against their cell phone, bank, and travel records. They also have refused to deliver on their promise of releasing transcripts of the testimony we heard, so that the public can judge for itself.
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“And if all that wasn’t bad enough, choosing to release the report today – the same day on which we learn that the Russian lawyer who met in 2016 with Trump’s family and aides at Trump Tower was indeed a Russian spy – just adds insult to injury.
Swalwell urged Speaker Ryan to bring forth Swalwell’s bipartisan legislation, the Protect Our Democracy Act, to create a bipartisan-appointed, independent commission on Russia’s meddling.
The 253-page Republican report claims that while Russia ran an information warfare campaign to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, there is no evidence that the Trump campaign, whom this warfare benefited, colluded with Russia.
The Republican report is indeed heavily redacted and contains little new information about Russia’s interference or the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, which is odd given that we just learned that Trump did actually spend the night in Moscow when he claimed he did not, and used this claim to bolster his defense against the Steele Dossier and the salacious “pee” allegations.
Trump ran with the Republican report, announcing repeatedly that there was “No collusion with the Trump campaign” and then pointing his finger at Hillary Clinton, whom the Russian warfare targeted in a way that threw an election that pollsters thought was hers. Russia repeatedly denies, in agreement with Trump, any collusion.
During an NBC News interview to be broadcast on Friday, according to the New York Times, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the Trump Tower meeting, said she has Russian government ties, including being an informant.
(Additional reporting by Warren Strobel, John Walcott, Tim Ahmann, David Alexander and Mark Hosenball)
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