Senate Democratic leaders agreed Wednesday to a bipartisan probe inside Congress of allegations that people linked to President Donald Trump - including ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn - had frequent contacts with Russia during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.
Democrats agreed to push forward with an ongoing Intelligence Committee investigation into Russia's purported activities into the election, expanding the probe to include contacts made by Flynn and perhaps other Trump campaign officials with the Kremlin. They united around this course of action despite pressure from some Democrats to demand an independent commission to pursue the matter from outside Congress.
The decision was made at a Democratic conference meeting Wednesday morning hastily called by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer aimed to get his colleagues on the same page following a fresh report from the New York Times that Trump campaign aides spoke frequently with Russian intelligence operatives during the campaign. Flynn resigned Monday night after The Washington Post revealed that he spoke about sanctions with Russia's ambassador to the United States after the election.
Schumer; Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee; and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, explained their stance afterward in a joint appearance.
They demanded that all committee investigations related to allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts with Trump surrogates be bipartisan and comprehensive and that panel members be "committed to making their findings as public as possible."
Democrats also want the Justice Department - specifically, the FBI - to continue investigating the allegations that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in an attempt to help Trump win. But they are insisting that former senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., now the attorney general, recuse himself from the proceedings.
Leading Senate Democrats - some of whom advocated for an independent commission - acknowledged that isn't possible unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signs off on such a move.
"I'll be perfectly blunt: We need to have Sen. McConnell's blessing before we'll get a commission done. He's not there," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Benjamin Cardin (Md.), who has been pushing for an independent commission. "I think Senator Schumer, if he had his druthers, would take a commission immediately - but we can't get it."
Schumer had previously endorsed the idea of an independent commission to investigate suspected links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Other Democrats feared risking what precious momentum they had built for an investigation at all by pushing to take such a probe outside Congress.
"We've already started this process; we're already starting to review the raw intelligence; we're well down this path," Warner told reporters Wednesday. "I understand others look at other things - I think that would greatly delay the process, and what I think everyone wants, regardless of where we stand, is we want to get this done expeditiously."
Warner insisted that he has "faith in Senator Burr's commitment" to pursue the investigation fairly, adding that, "If at any point we're not able to get the full information and we're not pursuing the information to where the intelligence leads, that we'll look at other options."
But for other Democrats, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr's, R-N.C., integrity isn't the issue - McConnell is.
"I'm just not convinced that Mitch McConnell is going to let the Intelligence Committee get to the real story," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who advocated an independent commission.
Senate Republican leaders, meanwhile, responded to Flynn's resignation by saying that the Intelligence Committee probably will examine the circumstances. They reiterated that position Wednesday.
"I don't think we need a select committee. We know how to do our work. We have an Intelligence Committee," McConnell said in an interview on MSNBC.
One Republican, however, said lawmakers should establish a "joint select committee" - consisting of members of the House and the Senate - to examine the allegations in the Times report.
"Now, was this outside the norm? Was this something damaging to the country?" Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a Fox News Channel interview Wednesday morning. "I don't know, but if there were contacts between Russian officials and Trump campaign operatives that [were] inappropriate, then it would be time for the Congress to form a joint select commission to get to the bottom of all things Russia and Trump."
Democrats are insisting on some ground rules for the investigations, which could take place in multiple panels.
They are demanding that the Trump administration preserve all its records from the transition period, citing "real concern" that officials might "try to cover up ties to Russia" by deleting emails, texts and other documents establishing links between the Trump White House and the Kremlin, Schumer said. Democrats also are demanding that Flynn, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and other campaign officials make themselves available to testify before the committees.
But Democrats' demands still depend in large part on what Republican leadership is willing to accommodate.
Republican leaders have not ruled out calling on Flynn and other campaign or administration officials to testify. But a majority of the Senate Intelligence Committee would have to agree to issue a subpoena compelling such testimony.
The GOP is divided over the revelations that Flynn misled his superiors about the substance of his conversations with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak during the transition period. Some Republicans insist that the real scandal is not the fact that Flynn lied about whether he discussed sanctions with Kislyak - but that those conversations ever became public.
"The leaks are coming from somewhere, and the surveillance came from somewhere . . . obviously it's coming from people that don't want to see this administration succeed," said Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
He added that incoming administration members like Flynn "would be derelict in their duty not to be reaching out and getting up to speed" through conversations with people like the Russian ambassador - though, Johnson stressed, he didn't know the substance of those conversations.
That line from certain GOP leaders has infuriated other Republicans.
"All of us know that leaks happen in this town, and we all don't like it - but the fact is that you now have a much larger issue to address," said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. "The national security adviser lied to the vice president of the United States. That's a pretty serious event."
Over in the House, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is already prioritizing investigating leaks over Flynn's contacts with Kremlin officials. And leading Democrats are powerless to stop them.
"Frankly it's safer for them to talk about leaks than be critical of the president," House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said of his GOP colleagues. "There's still a lot they want from this president in the form of tax cuts and regulatory giveaways, so I think they're hoping to get what they can get before they have to confront him."
Democrats in the Senate worry about facing the same fate, should GOP leaders decide they have bigger priorities than Trump's Russia ties.
"I'll acknowledge that Sen. Burr is moving in the right direction, and my lack of faith is probably not so much in Senator Burr but in Republican leadership," Murphy said. "I ultimately think their priority is getting a trickle-down tax cut done, and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, not getting to the bottom of this scandal."
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Senate Democrats unify around congressional probe of Trump ties to Russia - Chicago Tribune