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Seeing as to how Team Trump is taking the House Report, and “running with it” — using it to justify the smearing and degrading of the Special Counsel’s stellar work — as “Done Nothing” after 1 year … “time to pack up shop, time to shut the whole thing down” ...
Seeing them smear Purple Heart recipient Robert Mueller, with all manner of lies and fabrications, in a fevered pitch to halt the Investigation — it may be time for Team Democrats to get “off our asses” — and “run with” the Senate Intel conclusions, that plainly show the Special Counsel Investigation is warranted.
Indeed, it is urgently needed … assuming this bi-partisan Senate panel’s Oversight role — cannot itself be cast off as some “Deep State” plot by the Right-wing myth-makers, as something inspired by ‘sore-loserism’, and a universal disdain for their Dear Leader Donald … who can ‘Do No Wrong’ — the [partisan] House report says so.
by Alex Ward, Vox — 05/16/2018
Russia tried to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election — and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to do so.
That’s according to an official statement from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee released on Wednesday. The committee conducted months of interviews with current and former intelligence officials to verify if American spies correctly assessed last year that Russia favored Trump and tried to sway the 2016 presidential election. It turns out the Senate panel agrees with the US intelligence community.
“Our staff concluded that the [intelligence community’s] conclusions were accurate and on point,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a joint statement with the panel’s chair, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
[...]
SO, the Senate panel agrees with the “Deep State” U.S. Intelligence Community (CIA, FBI, NSA).
AND, the Senate panel agrees ‘Putin had a horse in the U.S. Election’ — and that Putin’s favorite was Trump. And Putin did everything in his power, to ‘help his horse win’ ...
The one-sided House Intel Committee however, saw things differently — namely that Putin was ‘an equal opportunity disrupter’. Putin would have been perfectly happy if Hillary had won instead — the House report says so.
by MARTIN MATISHAK and KYLE CHENEY, Politico — 05/16/2018
Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday endorsed the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help President Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.
It’s a powerful bipartisan endorsement of a conclusion that had been called into question by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, who have accused intelligence agencies of failing to employ proper “tradecraft” when they concluded Russia came to support Trump’s candidacy. Instead, it’s the Republicans on the House panel who find themselves isolated in their position in what has become an increasingly antagonistic relationship with the FBI and Justice Department.
[...]
Trump allies in Congress have routinely acknowledged Russia’s interference in the 2016 election but have stopped short of embracing the conclusion that their goal was to support Trump’s election. Rather, they’ve argued that Russia simply wanted to sow discord and undermine Americans’ faith in their institutions. But the Senate panel’s findings now puts a significant seal of approval on the intelligence agencies’ work at a time when the FBI has been besieged by Trump allies who say bias inside the agencies marred their work on the Russia investigation.
[...]
Here’s a little reminder of the stark warnings that U.S. Intelligence Community issued about Putin’s cyber-warfare exercises in the good ole USA — overt and covert activities on US soil, that the House Committee chose to ignore; and that the Senate panel has just roundly endorsed:
Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, United States of America
ICA — Intelligence Community Assessment
Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections
ICA 2017-0D
6 January 2017
Key Judgments
Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.
We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US 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. We have high confidence in these judgments.
• 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. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence.
[Emphasis from Source Document]
At this one year anniversary of the Special Counsel Investigation’s initiation:
Robert Mueller has racked up “5 guilty pleas, 17 indictments and more” according to the www.latimes.com
As USA Today smartly reminds us — Investigations take time, sometimes lots of time:
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The Watergate scandals, which prompted congressional investigations and a special prosecutor, played out over more than two years and only came to an end when President Nixon resigned. The so-called Benghazi investigation conducted by House Republicans lasted more than two-and-a-half years and produced no indictments of anyone besides the attackers. The Iran-Contra special prosecutor investigation took more than six years and produced 11 convictions (though two were overturned).
What matters is … Do the Investigations “get results”?
If they are pursuing anything involving real law-breaking, they usually will.
Team Dems need to start making that case … loudly, clearly, and urgently.
As urgently as the Senate just has …
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