It appears likely that Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina used his perch as the chairman of the Senate Inteligence Committee to gather inside information on the coming Covid-19 crisis and then inoculate himself from stock losses by selling companies that stood to lose revenue. That’s a crime, and he should be thoroughly investigated. Having said that, I’ve been impressed with how he’s run his committee. He’s been under extraordinary pressure to shut down his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election, or to at least force it to come to conclusions that cast doubt on the Intelligence Community’s assessment. He has consistently refused to do this, and has now issued a final report that confirms that basic narrative spelled out by Robert Mueller’s investigators.
The simple facts are that Russia had a policy of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton, and that they cultivated numerous contacts within the Trump administration, and that their help was understood and eagerly welcomed by people in Trump’s campaign. Mueller concluded that a conspiracy case couldn’t be won against any particular individuals, so the charges were limited to noncooperation with the investigation (including lying to Congress) or financial or campaign finance/lobbying crimes that that were exposed during the investigation. The Senate Intelligence Committee report isn’t focused on identifying indictable behavior, but it buttresses what Mueller reported and defends the Intelligence Community’s findings.
American intelligence officials’ determination that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assist Donald J. Trump’s candidacy was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics, according to a key Republican-led Senate review released on Tuesday. The findings undercut longstanding allegations by Mr. Trump and his allies that the officials were biased against him.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which conducted the three-year study, had already given the work of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. an interim stamp of approval, but the 158-page report on Tuesday presented new detail about the government’s attempts in 2016 and 2017 to make sense of Russia’s attacks. Much of the report’s contents about the so-called Intelligence Community Assessment were considered highly sensitive and blacked out by the Trump administration.
“The I.C.A. reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the panel’s chairman. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”
This won’t prevent Trump and his allies from continuing to argue that the allegations are “fake news” and the investigations are part of “a witch hunt,” but it’s important for the historical record and it does undermine the credibility of those arguments.
Richard Burr could probably use some friends right now, and this report isn’t going to help in that respect. For that, he deserves credit even if he’s only done what anyone in his position should do. In Trump’s Republican Party, this kind of behavior is almost unheard of, so I thought I should give credit where it is due.
“Richard Burr could probably use some friends right now, and this report isn’t going to help in that respect. For that, he deserves credit even if he’s only done what anyone in his position should do”
Sad that anyone deserves praise for doing the right thing – occasionally.
OTOH – How long has Burr known this? Years? Why grow a conscience now?
As a deeply damaged incumbent, Burr must be thinking “what the hell, why not?”—although one would have thought that there were enough sewage-eating Trumpists on the committee to have stopped the thing.
Burr will have to rely upon the usual Repub NC vote suppression and electorate “managing” tactics to return to his senate perch, and those mechanisms should be enough to see him through this latest scandal. Obviously his insider trading will never be charged under any administration, that’s for the little people. But it will be curious if Der Trumper can withhold criticism of an incumbent he desperately needs to keep. The truth and Trump obviously don’t mix….
It’s an article of faith for 40-some percent of the voters that Mueller found nothing, there was “no collusion!” and that Trump was “totally exonerated!” Indeed, the corporate media has long since given up on this story, especially now with the non-stop Covid-izaton of all life. Equally obviously, Gravedigger of Democracy McConnell (and his majority) are certainly not going to do anything to protect America’s elections from more (pro-Repub) Russian interference in the future. Indeed, they’d be crazy to do so, since they need all the (anti-democratic) help they can get!
So, as you say, this last senate report is exclusively for the history books, and hopefully some future Dem admin will re-issue it without Der Trumper’s absurd redaction(s)–what’s the basis for any redaction now?