Early on Wednesday, newly-empowered Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence finally made official what we’ve been expecting for weeks now: They advanced their vote to release any and all materials related to the House’s Congressional investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
BREAKING: The House Intelligence Committee just voted to release all witness transcripts from our Russia investigation to the Department of Justice and Special Counsel Mueller.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 6, 2019
And while it was an expected move, the part that nobody’s reporting — the important thing to underscore — is just what the phrase “our Russia investigation” has come to mean since the Democrats took over half of Congress.
Anything left in the possession of the House Intel Committee, even from when the Republicans were conducting their own sham investigation, is now in the hands of Democrats. And while GOP toadies did artfully redact most transcripts and reports from outside agencies in a way that favored Donald Trump, the original content is still there. It’s not like Democrats are starting from zero with all new witnesses and hearings — much of it they can simply re-review from the Gowdy/Nunes days and release in their own form.
That means that not only is it exceedingly likely that both Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner will be receiving formal “cufflinks” from the special counsel forthwith, but that FISA investigation information, WikiLeaks information, and a host of other topics that Republicans breezed past in their effort to cover for Donald Trump are now subject to new scrutiny not just by Democrats, but by Robert Mueller himself.
In fact — and perhaps this is wishful thinking, but it’s certainly possible — Democrats could even open a probe, depending on how much was covered up, into their GOP colleagues for their possible role in attempting to derail the special counsel investigation by refusing to interview key witnesses and redacting information that did not require classification, but would have damaged the President’s defense.
Featured image via screen capture
