By Eric Mack (NEWSMAX)
The House Intelligence Committee released 53 transcripts and other documents (6,000 pages) related to its investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling attempts, a release long delayed.
There is a rift between House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and the White House on the nature of the delay, Schiff wrote in a letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, calling it “troubling” and “political interference.”
The White House argued it had authority to review the classification and redactions of the documents releated to “White House equities,” while Schiff’s committee contended the transcripts were its property, blocking the Office of Director of National Intelligence from sharing it with the White House.
“Despite the many barriers put in our way by the then-Republican Majority, and attempts by some key witnesses to lie to us and obstruct our investigation, the transcripts that we are releasing [Thursday] show precisely what special counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct,” Schiff wrote in a statement.
The transcripts were sought by House Republicans this week after the panel had voted unanimously in September 2018 to declassify them and make them public. Republicans were leading the panel at that time, but Schiff took over as chairman after the midterm elections flipped the control of the House to Democratic leadership.
Schiff’s statement claimed the White House had instructed the ODNI to share the documents to review potential redaction of nonclassified “White House equities.”
“In March of 2019, the committee was informed that ODNI intended to share the committee transcripts with the White House because the White House claimed the transcripts implicated ‘White House equities,'” context labeled “background” in the statement read.
In response, the committee directed that the ODNI refrain from sharing the transcripts, which remain committee property and were shared with the intelligence community only for the purpose of declassification. We urged that ODNI complete the classification review as requested and without any further delay.”
The White House lifted its hold on the documents this week, according to Acting DNI Grenell, the statement claimed.
“The committee, after a review of the 53 transcripts which totaled tens of thousands of pages and to avoid any further delays, has allowed all of the redactions proposed by ODNI despite our concerns that the ODNI excessively over-redacted information that has since been declassified,” it concluded.
“Redactions applied to the classified and sensitive transcripts released today were the work of the ODNI, not the committee, and the committee has accepted all IC-proposed redactions for now.”
Among the most notable transcripts were those of interviews with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice – individuals which had begun the investigation into the Trump campaign, ostensibly the political opposition of the outgoing administration.
The only transcript interview still masked in the release, due to revealing of sources and methods, is the FBI special agent testifying to the unverified nature of the dossier written by British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump.
Question: “So if I can ask, you said, you mentioned just a second ago, when you read it at that point, in early July, the information had been totally unverified?”
Answer: “Yeah.”
Q: “ls that something he, Christopher Steele, told you about the information?”
A: “Well, my first – one of the first questions I had to him was, do you have any corroboration of this? ls there any independent corroboration, information that you have? ls there a videotape? ls there an audiotape? Do you have anything else? And the answer was no.”
Among the Trump campaign officials in the transcripts were: Donald Trump Jr., Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Brad Parscale, Michael Caputo, and Rick Dearborn.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, is Trump’s DNI nominee to succeed Grenell, and his confirmation hearing got underway this week in the Senate.
