Adam Schiff Orders Republicans To Conduct Themselves With Dignity, Propriety, Courtesy, And Decorum While Trump Is Being Impeached

Adam Schiff by Nancy Ohanian

This morning, Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) released a "dear colleague" letter explaining the next phase of Trump's impeachment, a letter that will help people better understand why Trump has seemingly gone insane on Twitter today-- over half a dozen crackpot tweets, with the chief executive no doubt running around the room, crying, showing things, screeching, shaking like a mad dog:

Dear Colleague:

As we return from recess, I want to provide a brief update on the next phase of the impeachment inquiry as the Intelligence Committee prepares to conduct public hearings.

Last week, the Intelligence Committee, in coordination with the Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees, began releasing the transcripts of the witness depositions that were held in closed session, which are available at intelligence.house.gov. We are continuing to prepare the release of the remaining witness transcripts, as authorized by House Resolution 660.

Additionally, the Intelligence Committee has provided notice of two open hearings scheduled for this week. First, tomorrow, the Committee will hold an open hearing with Ambassador William Taylor, our top diplomat in Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, the State Department’s lead career official focused on Ukraine. On Friday, the Committee will hold an open hearing with Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who served as Ambassador to Ukraine until her abrupt removal earlier this year. Collectively, these three diplomats bring decades of dedicated and exemplary service to our nation, and I believe it is vitally important that the American people and all Members of Congress hear in their own words what they experienced and witnessed.

Attached is a memorandum I have shared with all Intelligence Committee Members in preparation for the solemn undertaking with which we have been tasked. It explains the procedures under which the open hearings will be governed, pursuant to H. Res. 660 and the House rules. Given the degree of public interest in these hearings, we are making this memorandum available to all Members so they might better understand the rules and procedures under which we are operating.

We intend to conduct these hearings with the seriousness and professionalism the public deserves. The process will be fair to the President, the Committee Members, and the witnesses. Above all, these hearings are intended to bring the facts to light for the American people. Following opening statements, witnesses will be questioned for equally divided rounds by the Chair or Ranking Member, or by respective staff counsel. Following the completion of extended questioning, all Members of the Intelligence Committee will be recognized under the five minute rule for further questions.

Additional witnesses will be announced this week. As required under H.Res. 660, the Minority has submitted their recommended witnesses for public hearings, which we are evaluating.

I spent much of yesterday participating in Veteran’s Day events in my district, as I know many of you did as well. The patriotism and commitment to service over self of our nation’s veterans never ceases to inspire me, and we would all do well to look to their example in the days to come. I hope that all Members will approach these proceedings with the seriousness of purpose and love of country that they demand. The American people and the Constitution deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

Adam B. Schiff
Chairman; House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Republicans must have been flipping out when they read Schiff's memorandum, which included a paragraph on decorum-- aimed right at the two Trumpist disruptive neo-fascists, Gym Jordan (R-OH) and John Ratcliffe (R-TX): "The Code of Official Conduct for Members of Congress requires that every Member 'shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.' As Chair, I will do my utmost during the hearings to safeguard the rights of the witnesses and all Members of the Committee, just as Committee Members should strive to conduct themselves with 'dignity, propriety, courtesy, and decorum.'"
 The Republicans are protesting that Schiff is making his own rules up to discredit them.

Senate Intelligence Committee Knows Trump Is An Illegitimate President

There are 15 senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee, 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The chairman is Richard Burr (R-NC) and the vice-chair is Mark Warner, a conservative from Virginia. Almost every member is an establishment conservative. These are the rest of the members:

• James Risch (R-ID)
• Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Susan Collins (R-ME)
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Tom Cotton (R-AR)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Ben Sasse (R-NE)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Ron Wyden (D-OR)
• Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
• Angus King (I-ME)
• Kamala Harris (D-CA)
• Michael Bennet (D-CO)

The committee issued a report yesterday that, though annoyingly redacted, is going to send Trump into orbit if he ever finds out about it. The Republican's have the majority on the committee but the report found, that Russia's Internet Research Agency "sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin" and called on Trump to "reinforce with the public the danger of attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election."

The 85-page report emphasized that the Russian activity against the U.S. electoral system has "increased, rather than decreased, after Election Day 2016"-- up "more than 200% on Instagram and more than 50% on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube." The Russians have especially attempted to exacerbate domestic tensions and increase Trump's election prospects by targeting African-Americans. The report: "By flooding social media with false reports, conspiracy theories, and trolls, and by exploiting existing divisions, Russia is trying to breed distrust of our democratic institutions and our fellow Americans."

The bipartisan report says flatly that "Despite Moscow’s denials, the direction and financial involvement of Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as well as his close ties to high-level Russian government officials including President Vladimir Putin, point to significant Kremlin support, authorization, and direction of the IRA’ s operations and goals."

The Intel Committee is recommending that Congress consider new laws to block foreign interference in elections, such as requiring disclosure of who pays for election-related online advertising (just as TV stations do). The legislation already proposed to do that-- Lindsey Graham's Honest Ads Act-- has been blocked by Moscow Mitch.

The report confirms the findings of private researchers that African-American voters were targeted by the troll farm more frequently than any other group, in an apparent effort to suppress the vote and help Trump.

At a rally in Pennsylvania in December 2016, then President-elect Trump thanked black voters for failing to turn out for Clinton at the same rate they did for Obama.

"They didn't come out to vote for Hillary. They didn't come out. And that was a big," Trump said. "So thank you to the African-American community."

Two-thirds of the Internet Research Agency's Facebook ads were focused on race, the report found, adding that black voters were targeted with messages such as: "Don't Vote for Hillary Clinton," "Don't Vote At All," "Why Would We Be Voting," "Our Votes Don't Matter," and "A Vote for Jill Stein is Not a Wasted Vote."

While much of the report's analysis of how the Russians used social media in 2016 wasn't new, the document includes the first set of bipartisan recommendations to come out of a close look at what happened.

In addition to calling for new laws, the committee recommended that the executive branch "publicly reinforce the danger of attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election" and "establish an interagency task force to monitor foreign nations' use of social media platforms for democratic interference and develop a deterrence framework."

While the FBI and other agencies have sought to tackle the issue of foreign manipulation on social media, there has been no whole-of-government approach led from the White House, principally because President Trump has not wanted to focus on an issue that he feels undermines the legitimacy of his 2016 victory, officials have said.

Trump has never acknowledged the extent to which Russian intelligence services and their proxies intervened in the 2016 election, and at times he has denied that it happened.

Gym Jordan Has Allied Himself Completely With Russia-- He Should Be Kicked Off The House Intelligence Committee Immediately

The Republican strategy yesterday was basically to say there was no there there, to set the stage for Barr's investigation of Hillary Clinton and to bore the audience to death so that they would turn off the station and tune in something-- anything-- else. The worst was Gym Jordan. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal set the stage by re-publishing a year old piece by Ben Kesling and Kristina Peterson, Former Ohio State Wrestlers Say Rep. Jim Jordan Knew of Team Doctor’s Alleged Misconduct, proving that Jordan is an inveterate and practiced liar. Short version: "Lawmaker denies knowledge of alleged sexual abuse that occurred in the 1990s, when he was assistant coach."

Five former wrestlers, including former UFC world champion Mark Coleman, said this week that Rep. Jim Jordan was aware of, but didn’t respond to, allegations of sexual misconduct by an Ohio State University team doctor when the lawmaker was an assistant wrestling coach there in the 1990s.

“There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,” Mr. Coleman, the mixed martial arts champion, said of Mr. Jordan in an interview Wednesday. Messrs. Coleman and Jordan roomed together on several wrestling trips, Mr. Coleman said. “I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.”

Mr. Jordan has denied that he was aware of any sexual misconduct by Dr. Richard Strauss. The doctor died in 2005.

If he had seen abuse at the time, “I would have done something about it,” the Ohio Republican said in an interview this week. “If there was abuse, we want justice done. There’s no room for this kind of behavior.”

The focus on Mr. Jordan intensified in recent days when NBC News reported that three former wrestlers said Dr. Strauss’s inappropriate conduct was common knowledge. Eight people involved in Ohio State athletics in the 1990s spoke to the Wall Street Journal this week.

The controversy over how much the Ohio Republican lawmaker may have known at the time could affect the career trajectory of one of the most influential conservatives in the House. Mr. Jordan helped found the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly three-dozen conservative Republicans, and said he has been considering a run to succeed departing House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

“These are serious allegations and issues. The university has rightfully initiated a full investigation into the matter. The speaker will await the findings of that inquiry,” Doug Andres, a spokesman for Mr. Ryan, said in a statement.

President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday he didn’t believe the allegations against Mr. Jordan. “I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man,” Mr. Trump said Thursday evening.

“We are aware of reports that individuals at the university did not respond appropriately during Richard Strauss’s time at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998,” Chris Davey, a spokesman for the university said in an email Thursday. “These allegations are troubling and are a critical focus of the independent investigation that remains underway.”

Former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato has led a campaign to publicize Dr. Strauss’s alleged wrongdoings for months and only recently began to criticize Mr. Jordan for allegedly ignoring athletes’ concerns. Mr. DiSabato has been joined by other athletes who wrestled during Mr. Jordan’s tenure, as well as athletes from other teams and those who were aware of allegations about Dr. Strauss’s conduct.

Mr. DiSabato and Mr. Jordan have clashed over the issue. Mr. Jordan’s office contacted the Capitol police after the lawmaker received allegedly threatening texts and emails from him, an aide said.

Mr. DiSabato said he had absolutely not threatened Mr. Jordan and that he had not been contacted by law enforcement about text messages.

In interviews this week, other former Ohio State athletes said Dr. Strauss’s abuses were well known on multiple sports teams. They said that even for minor injuries, Dr. Strauss would conduct unnecessary, full-body physical examinations, during which he would inappropriately touch them. He would also regularly watch them shower, the former athletes said.

“I complained more than three times. I came across Strauss and I had a thumb injury, and ended up getting a physical,” said Dunyasha Yetts, a former Ohio State wrestler.

He said that back in the 1990s people simply didn’t use the same language to describe abuse as is used today, but he recalls telling the coaches that Dr. Strauss was acting inappropriately and needed to be reprimanded.

“If Jordan says he didn’t know about it then he’s lying,” said Mr. Yetts.

This isn’t the first time the House has been jolted by sexual misconduct allegations. Recently, a series of lawmakers from both parties have left Congress after being accused of sexual misconduct as public scrutiny has intensified under the #MeToo movement.

Ohio State has a continuing investigation by an outside law firm into allegations of abuse by Dr. Strauss that began on April 5, according to an Ohio State web page on the matter. Mr. Jordan initially said investigators had not contacted him, but later learned that they had used the wrong email address to try to reach him, according to an aide for Mr. Jordan.

The university has received reports of sexual misconduct by Dr. Strauss from former athletes in 14 sports, according to its website. Dr. Strauss is also being investigated by an independent investigator authorized by the university for possible infractions as a student health doctor as well, according to the university website. He joined Ohio State’s staff in 1978 and retired in 1998.

“I knew Strauss, he was there when I was there,“ said one former athlete. ”All the stuff they’re saying about Strauss was out there.”

Dr. Strauss allegedly showered with athletes and on other occasions took photos of them for what he said was a planned book on musculature, according to the former athlete. “We thought he was weird but harmless,” the athlete said. “It was a different time.”

Gym Jordan, in encouraging Russian interference with the U.S. election in 2020. In other words, he's as much a traitor to America as he was to Ohio State University and, worse, to the young boys on the wrestling team who he allowed to be molested and raped.

Following Trump, Republicans Continue To Destroy The U.S. Intelligence Infrastructure-- Now They're Smearing Adam Schiff

"The Russian hoax is finally dead," Trump lied on Thursday in Grand Rapids. "The collusion delusion is over." Most Americans are well aware he is neither exonerated nor vindicated and fully 75% of the public insist the whole Mueller Report be made available to the public, not just a few words, chosen to make it appear the Trump didn't do much wrong. This morning, Susan Glasser mused at the New Yorker about how remarkable it is that "Trump triumphant has sounded like Trump at every other point in his Presidency: angry and victimized; undisciplined and often incoherent; predictable in his unpredictability; vain and insecure; prone to lies, exaggeration, and to undercutting even those who seek to serve him... There was no new Trump, no moving on. What was striking was how little celebration there was from the President, although he did talk a few times about the 'beautiful' outcome... Trump appears to have been freed from the fear of impeachment and removal from office, but he remains the public figure he has always been: a weird combination of perpetual victim and perpetual bully, whose one constant is to remain on the attack... [T]he story of Trump and Russia won’t go away. For Trump, it’s a key to his victimization narrative-- look at what the evil deep state tried to do to me. The President is all about the politics of grievance. For Democrats, even if the politics of impeachment have fizzled, the Trump-Russia story remains proof of Trump’s unfitness for office. It also remains unresolved by Barr’s short summary, which, after all, is just a few paragraphs of declarative legalese after two years of waiting. So, yes, Washington is less different than you would think after Mueller. Trump watched Schiff’s speech on Thursday morning, and he didn’t like it. He called him 'Little Pencil Neck' Schiff to the cheers of his Michigan crowd on Thursday night. The fight will go on."

Anyone who's read DWT for more than a week knows we're not exactly an Adam Schiff cheering squad over here. In fact, he's my congressman and I've never voted for him. Too conservative for me-- and for a hugely progressive district like mine (CA-28, which includes West Hollywood, the Hollywood Hills, East Hollywood, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, Atwater, Glendale, Burbank, Sunland-Tujunga...). However, now that he's under intense fire from not just the illegitimate make-believe "president" and his neo-fascist lie machine, but from the venal Republican monkeys in Congress who enable him, I'm reassessing my Schiff strategy.

He's certainly under no electoral threat from a Republican here. Trump is almost universally detested in this area and his attacks on Schiff make Schiff stronger. The PVI is a nice solid D+23 and in 2016 Hillary beat Trump 72.1% to 22.3%. There are "Impeach Trump" signs up all over the district. I guess the GOP strategy is to create another Democratic boogey man-- like Pelosi and AOC-- making them look less sexist in their attacks, maybe.

Yesterday Trump tweeted this bullshit about "knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking," which is the kind of crap from him people just roll their eyes about. It drives Trump mad(der) that Schiff keeps reminding people that he has NOT Been exonerated and that, as he said in the Washington Post, "undoubtedly there is collusion." Kellyanne Con-man-- or was it Hannity?-- first brought up the idea of a resignation campaign and when Trump made it clear he's on board, GOP clownish congressional leaders McCarthy and Scalise-- not to mention Pence, Giuliani and Trumpanzee, Jr.-- piled on, demanding he is unfit to chair the House Intelligence Committee. It's like a bizarro world mirror image of the actual unfitness of Devin Nunes, who was forced to recuse himself for months after he was caught colluding with Trump about collusion with Putin.

Yesterday, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported on how Schiff is responding to the GOP barrage of bullshit, especially after all 9 Republican members of the Intelligence Committee demanded he resign as chairman. Right wing lunatic Mike Conaway (R-TX): "We have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties."

Conaway said Schiff's insistence that there was ample evidence of collusion were "incompatible with your duties as the chairman of this committee." And he said the findings in special counsel Robert Mueller's report-- which haven't yet been viewed by any members of Congress-- "conclusively refute" Schiff's allegations.

The typically soft-spoken Schiff responded angrily, accusing Republicans of ignoring voluminous evidence of the Trump campaign's efforts to accept Russia's help in the election. He noted that Donald Trump Jr. met secretly with a Russian lawyer who he hoped would provide dirt on Hillary Clinton and told an associate he would "love" the Russian government's help.

He also noted that Trump helped dictate a false story about the meaning of his son's meeting and, during the campaign, openly asked Russia to obtain Clinton's emails — a comment Trump later construed as a joke.

Schiff said that Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort allegedly provided polling data to a Russian intelligence-linked associate and that his former national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his post-campaign conversations with Russia's ambassador.

"You might think that’s OK. I don’t," bellowed Schiff. “I think it's unethical. I think it's unpatriotic. I think it's corrupt and evidence of collusion.”

“I have always said that the question of whether this amounts to conspiracy is another matter,” he continued, adding, “But I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. And the day we do think that's OK is the day we will look back and say that is the day America lost its way.”

The attack by the Republican committee members on Schiff is a continuation of a similar assault launched by Trump-- who called on Schiff to quit Congress in a tweet earlier in the morning-- and other Trump allies who accused Schiff of fomenting claims of conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Democrats have rallied around Schiff in recent days. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) dismissed the GOP attacks, and Democrats’ House campaign arm elevated Schiff on Wednesday to be its national frontline finance chair.

At her weekly press conference Thursday, Pelosi delivered an unprompted defense of Schiff as she railed against Trump and the Republicans who have called for his ouster.

“What is the president afraid of? Is he afraid of the truth? That he would go after a member, a chairman of a committee, a respected chairman?” Pelosi said. “I think they’re just scaredy cats. They don't know what to do so they have to make an attack. It's their own insecurity. Their own fear of the truth.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also offered strong praise for Schiff.

"The American people have seen Mr. Schiff demonstrate on a regular basis responsibility, thoughtfulness, rationality, and a commitment to finding the truth," Hoyer told reporters Thursday. "Apparently all four of those aspects upset the president."

Schiff argued that he still believes there is ample evidence of collusion and said he’s long insisted such evidence may or may not rise to the level of a criminal charge. He said he accepts Mueller’s decision not to charge any Americans in Russia’s election interference efforts but said he still finds the Trump campaign’s posture toward Russia and efforts to accept its help as troubling.

In the middle of a transcontinental flight back to L.A. yesterday, Ted Lieu, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, summed the situation up expertly and clearly: "Adam Schiff has done a terrific job as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He has identified inappropriate conduct by Trump and his associates, and sought to inform the American people. He is doing his job and history will remember him well."

Jim Himes of Connecticut is one of the most senior members of the committee. We spoke yesterday and he noted the irony of the Republicans' baseless attack on Schiff: "The Republicans can celebrate that President Trump’s activities didn’t cross the line of criminal conspiracy and that it’s unclear that he obstructed justice. Yay. But the people who brought you 10 Benghazi investigations and who continue to fetishize Uranium One and the Clinton email server have no standing to criticize Adam Schiff or anyone else doing real oversight."

Needless to say, the disgraced fraud, Devin Nunes, who destroyed the bipartisan functionality of the committee while he chaired it-- and is busy suing an on-line cow now-- chimed in as well, with no sense of irony, saying that "we should not be used as a platform to spread false information and bizarre conspiracies." Now watch this:

Who Will Go To Prison Sooner, Nunes Or Trumpanzee, Jr.?

Currently, Buddy Carter is in a fierce competition with Louie Gohmert to be recognized as the most clueless member of Congress. Yesterday he told NPR has "every State of the Union that the president has given has gotten better and better" and went on about how he's become one of the great presidents of all times. The "president" has given two of those addresses, but perhaps Carter has dreamed of being at dozens of them. Earl Leroy "Buddy" Carter, a pharmacist, represents the southeast corner of Georgia. In his recent reelection bid, he was trounced in the 2 counties where people graduate high school-- Chatham (Savannah) and Liberty (Hinesville), he just owned all the counties where the average education doesn't go beyond the 4th grade (Glynn, Camden, Bryan Effingham, Ware, Wayne, Pierce, Brantley, McIntosh, Long, Bacon, Charlton, Clinch, Lowndes and Echols).

Luckily, Earl Leroy Carter is not on the Intelligence Committee. Republicans on that committee are Devon Nunes (CA), Mike Conaway (TX), Mike Turner (OH), Brad Wenstrup (OH), Chris Stewart (UT), Rick Crawford (AR), Elise Stefanik (NY), Will Hurd (TX) and John Ratcliffe (TX). Nunes is dumb enough without having to drag Carter into it. How dumb? Dumb enough to be the subject of an investigation by the committee he used to chair! It's hardly news that Nunes routinely obstructed justice and sabotaged his own committee's investigation into Russian interference with the U.S. elections, all that being done to protect Trump. When the new chairman, Adam Schiff announced how the committee would conduct its investigation into Russian interference, there was a special paragraph that has Nunes' name all over it: "Whether any actors-- foreign or domestic-- sought or are seeking to impede, obstruct, and/or mislead authorized investigations into these matters, including those in Congress." That likely also spells trouble for one non-committee member, Dana Rohrabacher, who was defeated for relection in 2018, largely because his constituents came to see him as a Kremlin operative. Mueller has already been investigating both Nunes and Rohrabacher.

Wednesday, in its first act since the Democrats have taken over, the committee voted to send interview transcripts from its Russia investigation-- including the deceitful, sworn testimony from Donald Trump, Jr.-- to Mueller, who could use them to prosecute perjury. Schiff: "The special counsel’s office, the Justice Department and its elements will now have access to those transcripts for any purpose which will facilitate justice."

When Republicans controlled the committee last year, then-Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) ended the panel’s Russia investigation and concluded that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

But Democrats said they would press on with the probe, arguing that key witnesses had not been interviewed. Schiff is reviving the investigation, placing a focus on potential money laundering and pledging to dive into The Trump Organization’s finances, among other issues.

On Wednesday, the committee announced the parameters of its investigation, which Schiff said will “go beyond Russia” and “will allow us to investigate any credible allegation that financial interests or other interests are driving the decision-making of the president or anyone in the administration.”

In a statement, Schiff said House investigators will broaden the scope of the Russia probe by looking into whether Trump or his associates “have sought to influence U.S. government policy in service of foreign interests” and “whether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates.”

In response, Trump lashed out at Schiff, accusing the chairman of unfairly singling him out.

“Under what basis would he do that? He has no basis to do that. He’s just a political hack,” Trump said Wednesday from the White House. “He’s trying to build a name for himself. And I think that’s fine because that’s what they do. But there would be no reason to do that. No other politician has to go through that. It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.”

Trump will, no doubt, soon be learning that Schiff can tweet too. "I can understand why the idea of meaningful oversight terrifies the President. Several of his close associates are going to jail, others await trial, and criminal investigations continue. We’re going to do our job and won’t be distracted or intimidated by threats or attacks."

Putin-Gate Continues To Plague Trump As He Goes To Meet His Master In Helsinki

Yesterday Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) penned an OpEd for USAToday sure to infuriate Trumpanzee if he gets wind of it over in Scotland, where he's being boo-ed everywhere he goes. Next stop is Helsinki, where he'll be meeting with the man who put him in the White House. As Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, we'll be meeting with allies in Washington to show Russia its plans to divide and attack us won't work.

The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report last week concurring with the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a massive influence campaign aimed at the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The attack included the targeting of election infrastructure, email hacks, weaponized leaks, overt propaganda and a covert, large-scale disinformation effort on social media feeds like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In many ways, this threat is not new. The Kremlin has been conducting information warfare or “active measures” against the West for decades. What is new, however, are social media tools with the reach and power to magnify propaganda and false information with a scale and precision that would have been unimaginable back in the days of the Berlin Wall.

The Soviet Politburo could only have dreamed of the capability Russia now has to target voters directly in the U.S., Europe and other democracies with propaganda, misinformation and disinformation. Twenty-first century social media tools have the potential to further erode public confidence in western institutions and undermine the shared sense of facts that is supposed to be the foundation of honest political debate.

In 2016, we were taken by surprise. In 2018, there are no excuses. We must be ready.

Message to Russia as Trump meets Putin

That is why we are teaming up with legislators from Canada and Europe to sound the alarm. Following this week’s NATO summit, parliamentarians from across Europe and North America will meet Monday in Washington, D.C., the same day President Donald Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki.

Our goal must be to demonstrate to the world that the community of democratic nations does not intend to accede to Putin’s or any other authoritarian’s view of the world. We will resist Russia’s aggression. As legislators, we have a responsibility to address that threat-- particularly on social media.

First, as elected officials, we have a duty to use our positions to shine a light on Russia’s actions and capabilities. Utilizing our investigative tools and public platforms, legislators must expose the full scale and scope of Russia’s schemes to weaken democracies.

The two of us are currently engaged in a bipartisan effort in the Senate Intelligence Committee to uncover Russia’s activities during the 2016 elections and publicly detail its array of asymmetric capabilities. Similarly, our colleagues in the British Parliament, led by Damian Collins, are conducting an inquiry on “fake news” and how it was used by both foreign and domestic actors to influence the Brexit vote.

But it is not enough simply to shine a bright light on Russian aggression. As legislators, we also are responsible for crafting and passing laws to protect our democracy while also preserving freedom of expression.

This is the summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's initial findings, a committee controlled by Republicans. The members are Chair Richard Burr (R-NC), James Risch (R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Susan Collins (R-ME), Roy Blunt (R-MO), James Lankford (R-OK), Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Cornyn (R-TX), Vice Chair Mark Warner, (D-VA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kamala Harris (D-CA).

The Committee finds that the Intelligence Community met President Obama’s tasking and that the ICA is a sound intelligence product. While the Committee had to rely on agencies that the sensitive information and accesses had been accurately reported, as part of our inquiry the Committee reviewed analytic procedures, interviewed senior intelligence officers well-versed with the information, and based our findings on the entire body of intelligence reporting included in the ICA.

The Committee finds the difference in confidence levels between the NSA and the CIA and FBI on the assessment that "Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances" appropriately represents analytic differences and was reached in a professional and transparent manner.

In all the interviews of those who drafted and prepared the ICA, the Committee heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions. All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process.

As the inquiry has progressed since January 2017, the Committee has seen additional examples of Russia's attempts to sow discord, undermine democratic institutions, and interfere in U.S. elections and those of our allies.

Russian Efforts to Influence the 2016 Election

The ICA states that:

Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the U.S.-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operation.

• The Committee found that this judgment was supported by the evidence presented in the ICA. Since its publication, further details have come to light that bolster the assessment.

• The ICA pointed to initial evidence of Russian activities against multiple U.S. state or local electoral boards. Since the ICA was published, the Committee has learned more about Russian attempts to infiltrate state election infrastructure, as outlined in the findings and recommendations the Committee issued in March 2018.

• While the ICA briefly discussed the activities of the Internet Research Agency, the Committee's investigation has exposed a far more extensive Russian effort to manipulate social media outlets to sow discord and to interfere in the 2016 election and American society.

Russian Leader Intentions

The ICA states that:

We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S . presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump

• The Committee found that the ICA provided a range of all-source reporting to support these assessments.
• The Committee concurs with intelligence and open-source assessments that this influence campaign was approved by President Putin.

• Further, a body of reporting, to include different intelligence disciplines, open source reporting on Russian leadership policy preferences, and Russian media content, showed that Moscow sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton.

• The ICA relies on public Russian leadership commentary, Russian state media reports, public examples of where Russian interests would have aligned with candidates' policy statements, and a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump.

The ICA also states that:


We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.

The House Intelligence Committee Republicans Screwed America. Can America Screw Them Back?

The Republicans suddenly decided that the investigation into Putin-Gate is over and that Trump and Putin didn't do anything wrong. Pretty horrifying that these people are attempting a white-wash and putting Trump ahead of America. There are 13 Republicans on the House Intel Committee but many of them are in deeply red districts and not really likely to be held accountable for this. Mike Conaway, for example represents TX-11, a district so red that the PVI is R+32. Trump beat Hillary there 77.8% to 19.1%. And that wasn't an aberration of some kind. Romney beat Obama 79.2% to 19.6%. Conaway usually gets reelected with around 80%. There was no Democrat running against him in 2016, 2014 or 2012. This cycle Democrat Virginia Louise Leeder has raised $17,117 to go up against Conaway's $1,536,342 war chest.

Early yesterday morning, Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the committee, was on CNN with Chris Cuomo. He told Cuomo that he hopes "the public gets to see these transcripts (of the hearings). They will see... how much they tried to protect the President when our job was to protect the ballot box." In terms of voter accountability,3 Republicans on the committee are retiring voluntarily-- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) , Frank LoBiondo (NJ) and Trey Gowdy (SC). There are 4 other intelligence Committee Republicans who are in severely gerrymandered districts that are considered very safe:

• Rick Crawford (AR-01)- PVI R+17
• Chris Stewart (UT-02)- PVI R+16
• Tom Rooney (FL-17)- PVI R+13
• Brad Wenstrup (OH-02)- PVI R+9

So that leaves 5 who either are or could be vulnerable in November. Voters should focus on defeating these five:

• Will Hurd (TX-23)- PVI R+1
• Peter King (NY-02)- PVI R+3
• Elise Stefanik (NY-21)- PVI R+4
• Michael Turner (OH-10)- PVI R+4
• Devin Nunes (CA-22)- PVI R+8

Will Hurd andPeter King look like they have probably reached the end of their roads, politically. The big fish, of course, would be Nunes-- but, by the numbers, his district is the toughest. Trump beat Hillary there by 10 points... a pretty steep-- albeit not impossible-- climb. The Democratic establishment is behind an uninspiring Republican-lite candidate, Andrew Janz, who venerates the death penalty and an NRA interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. The candidate who could actually beat Nunes is Ricardo Franco, who has a good connection to the voters but who is severely underfunded-- please help him here. "Today I spoke to a Poli Sci class at Fresno State," he told us, "where they are learning about Congress as well as propaganda techniques people use to get elected. Nunes calling local news outlets 'fake news' was a prime example and tonight's headlines did not go over well with them at all. Our local students are smart. Our constituents are smart. However, our youth are particularly keen on sniffing out BS when they see and hear it. Devin Nunes can spin things all he wants, but won't pass through the thorough lens of the students and constituents I talked to tonight. In fact, they sniff it out and reject it from the left as much as the right. Nunes' partisan political games and Dems that fall into the trap turn them off very quickly. You know what they did like speaking about? How for years Washington has been taking from the poor to feed the rich. These students know a statutory corporate tax rate of 20% effectively means zero. They know 'tax cuts for the middle class' are a lie after 5 years. If Mueller doesn't take Nunes down along with Trump, our voters certainly will."

There's also a great choice-- DuWayne Gregory-- in the Democrats' quest to dislodge Peter King on Long Island. King's vote with Nunes could be another brick in that road. DuWayne Gregory, the chief executive of the Suffolk County legislature, ran last time into a Long Island GOP headwind; this time he has the wind at his back. He told us that "King and his Republican cronies on the House Intel committee have failed us. This abrupt decision to shut down the investigation of Russia meddling with our elections created more questions than it answers. It is clear Peter King has not only abdicated his responsibility as a member of Congress, but as an American citizen, as well. This is a fireable offense and the voters on Election Day should do just that." Please consider helping DuWayne finish off King's shameful career by clicking on the congressional thermometer on the right and contributing whatever you can to his campaign. Let's make King and the rest of these guys symbols of this kind of treachery against the country.

Making Bannon Snitch On Trumpanzee

Tuesday I was in a hospital waiting room with a TV tuned to CNN when Bannon waddled into a closed door congressional hearing. I noticed that "Sloppy Steve" was wearing a coat and tie. I didn't know he owned a tie. Maybe he borrowed one. That night it was all over the news that he refused-- for 10 hours-- to answer any substantive questions from members of the House Intelligence Committee, even after they served him with a subpoena. Democrat Adam Schiff described the escapade as "a gag order by the White House." Even after the subpoena was served, according to Schiff, Bannon "was instructed by the White House to refuse again to answer any questions concerning the time during the transition and his time in the administration... The scope of this assertion of privilege-- if that’s what it is-- is breathtaking. It goes well beyond anything we’ve seen in this investigation." The White House once again claimed it is “fully cooperative” with the Putin-Gate investigation.

Bannon confirmed that last week he had been served with a subpoena by Mueller and that he would cooperate with that investigation, further infuriating members of the Intelligence Committee, including Republicans. With Intel Committee chair Devin Nunes recused from participating, acting head Mike Conaway (R-TX) adjourned the hearing with the proviso it would be back in session-- with Bannon-- today.

So what do Mueller the congressional investigators want from Bannon? He was part of the regime when Trump decided to fire Comey. They want him to help them prove the very likely obstruction of justice charges in the impeachment process. The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff reported that "executive privilege-- the president’s right to keep certain information from the public so he can have frank conversations with aides-- will not keep Steve Bannon from sharing information with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team," since Mueller is part of the Executive branch.

A report from Kyle Cheney in Politico late Tuesday had silly members of Congress claiming they will force Bannon to disgorge the information he has. They didn't specify how. Water boarding? The iron maiden? The rack? The brazen bull? The garrote? Brown rats? Pear of anguish? Boiling in oil? No dinner? I guess they could lock him in the congressional basement and play Nickelback, Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers really loud all night 'til he stops stonewalling.

"We’re going to get answers from Mr. Bannon," said Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, the top Republican on the committee's probe of Russian interference in the presidential election.

Tensions flared early in the proceedings after Bannon informed the committee that he was refusing to answer any questions about his time in the White House or on the post-election transition, infuriating Democrats and Republicans on the panel, who subpoenaed him on the spot, according to a source familiar with the interview.

...Bannon was behind closed doors with committee members and staff for more than 10 hours. Schiff said much of the time was spent negotiating the parameters of his testimony. Conaway recessed the interview after 8 p.m., and he declined to say whether he would pursue additional steps, such as holding Bannon in contempt or issuing a further subpoena for documents.

Schiff and Conaway confirmed that Bannon and the White House didn't specifically assert executive privilege to avoid answering questions, but rather suggested that some of the answers could potentially infringe upon executive privilege. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a similar case when he declined to answer some questions he had received from lawmakers in various ongoing Russia probes.

But Bannon also refused to discuss conversations he may have had with Trump even after he left the White House in August, Schiff said. And a source familiar with the interview added that lawmakers were perplexed at Bannon's suggestion that the transition period-- when Trump wasn't yet in office-- could be subject to executive privilege claims.

The decision by Republicans and Democrats to subpoena Bannon represented unusual bipartisan pushback for a committee that has recently been mired in partisan discord. And Bannon's appearance came just weeks after a falling-out with Trump over comments Bannon made in an explosive new book.

  ...The source familiar with the interview said Republican lawmakers-- including Conaway and former federal prosecutor Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina-- were also frustrated that Bannon was not more forthcoming.

When It Comes To Putin-Gate, Who In Congress Really Will Stand And Deliver?

At some point around 1980, Stuart Goddard (AKA- Adam Ant) had to decide if the band he led was going to be a modern boy band and go for the gold via a path used by contemporaries like Classic Nouveaux, ABC, Simple Minds, Heaven 17, Blancmange... and later so successfully trod by groups like the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, or go for the glory of competing with the big boys-- like The Clash, The Smiths and Generation X. If the video above confuses you, don't worry; it confused Stuart and his mates as well. Right after Kings of the Wild Frontier won the BRIT Award for Best Album, the band broke up.

Conservative Virginia Democrat Mark Warner-- one of the richest members of Congress-- isn't going to "break up," but he's at, as Matt Flegenheimer put it for NY Times readers yesterday, a stand-and-deliver moment of his own.



ProgressivePunch rates Warner's lifetime crucial vote score an "F" and there are only 4 Senate Dems with more conservative voting records-- Claire McCaskill, Joe Donnelly, Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp-- who are differentiated from Warner inasmuch as their states all went strongly for Trump and Warner's state went comfortably for Clinton. Also, those 4 are up for reelection in 2018 and Warner isn't. Interestingly, his power base has always been in rural, red-leaning southwest Virginia, Trump's strongest areas of the state. Trump lost Virginia 49.9% to 45.0% but won Morgan Griffiths' VA-09 (Blacksburg and Bristol) 68.8% to 27.3% (easily his biggest margin in the state) and won Bob Goodlatte's VA-06 (Roanoke and Lynchburg) 59.7% to 34.9%, his second biggest win in the state.Traditionally, that's been Warner country, although he has to be aware after his near-debacle in 2014, that to win he has to super-serve voters in the suburbs in the DC area, Richmond, Norfolk and the less Republican parts of the state. It's not 2001 or 2008 anymore.

No doubt Warner is happiest on the Finance and Budget committees but he's the ranking Democrat-- vice chair-- of the Select Committee on Intelligence and that is what's taking up his time and energy right now.



Flegenheimer reports that Warner is communicating "over the encrypted app Signal, just to be safe," seemingly not aware-- neither Flegenheimer nor Warner that Signal actually makes it easier for professional spies to hack your communications-- even if it helps protect you from the neighborhood children trying out hacking. Warner calls the investigation into Putin-Gate "probably the most important thing I’ve done in public life."

As Republicans resist calls for a select committee or special prosecutor to oversee the matter, the Democrats’ best hope for acquiring answers most likely remains an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Mr. Warner is vice chairman.

The result, at the height of anti-Trump fervor and Wall Street-bashing progressivism in the Democratic Party’s base, is a spotlight trained brightly on a southern-state centrist with a nine-figure net worth, a decade-old itch to be president and, until recently, according to friends and former aides, a healthy disdain for the institution he serves.

...The minefields are many, politically and procedurally, as Mr. Warner strains to hold the committee together and maintain his own credibility with peers in both parties.

He is working to assuage the concerns of Democrats who suspect that Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the committee’s chairman, is not especially interested in a thorough investigation.

But he has taken care not to alienate Mr. Burr, a vocal Trump supporter during the campaign.

These dueling impulses collided last month when Mr. Warner publicly scolded his Republican colleague after the Washington Post reported that Mr. Burr had spoken with the White House and engaged with news organizations to dispute reports that associates of Mr. Trump had consistent contact with Russian intelligence operatives.

In the interview, Mr. Warner called Mr. Burr a friend and declined to detail their private conversations. Other Democrats have been less muted.

Warner would like to run for president in 2020 and there's probably no worse candidate the Democrats could try. He makes Hillary Clinton look like... Bernie Sanders. We'll see if he has the strength and fortitude to lead Burr and the rest of the Republicans (including Rubio Cotton and Cornyn) and some really conservative Democraps (like Joe Manchin and DiFi) into the kind of thorough and intense investigation Putin-Gate merits. My guess is that he has neither the strength and fortitude nor the courageousness it would take.

And the House Intelligence Committee-- the partisan bunch of assholes led by enemy-of-the-people Devin Nunes-- is pretty hopeless, even if Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell are uncharacteristically and sincerely stepping up to the plate. I'd much rather see someone like Ted Lieu, who isn't on the Intelligence Committee, lead the Democratic efforts to find out, in Señor Trumpanzee's words, "what the hell is going on." Between the lies spewing out of Team Trump-- all corraborated by the Kremlin and its agents-- and the revelations from intelligence agencies, there is no doubt that someone unafraid of stepping on toes and hitting hard-- someone like Ted Lieu. not Mark Warner-- is what the Democrats need. Yesterday he introduced a resolution of inquiry that would compel the Trump and Sessions to submit to Congress any documents that could connect the Trump campaign with the Russian effort to compromise America's democracy. The resolution states that the two of them must reveal "Any meeting or communication between any formal or informal advisor, affiliate, or employee of Donald Trump, his campaign or transition team, and any individual or entity representing the interests of Russia or individuals with interests involving Russia."

December Bromance

Ted explained what he's trying to accomplish. "For the good of our Republic, there must be a full accounting of any and all ties between Russia, President Trump, his administration and his associates. Russia waged an unprecedented, robust, covert effort to alter the outcome of our nation's 2016 election. The importance of fully understanding if Team Trump colluded with Russia cannot be overstated. This resolution seeks the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when it comes to the issue of Trump and Russia... The American people have an absolute right to know the truth about Trump and his team's ties to Russia now."