Former CIA Director John Brennan warned his employees in an internal memo last December that some members of Congress did not “understand and appreciate the importance of gravity” of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, Buzzfeed News reported Thursday.
The memo, which Buzzfeed obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, did not mention the specific lawmakers who Brennan referred to by name. Three unnamed intelligence sources told the publication that the lawmakers in question were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Cornyn (R-TX), a particularly close ally of the Trump administration.
In the months since President Donald Trump took office, both McConnell and Cornyn have continued to downplay Russia’s interference in the U.S. election and any possible assistance the Trump team may have provided for that effort.
Brennan testified in May on the collective assessment that he and other intelligence leaders reached about Russia’s “brazen” interference in the 2016 race through bots pushing fake news and the release of emails hacked from Democratic Party organizations and operatives.
Under oath before the House Intelligence Committee, Brennan said that the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia warranted investigation. He also said that he left office with “unresolved questions” about whether Russian officials successfully convinced members of the campaign “to act on their behalf—wittingly or unwittingly.”
Four congressional committees and a special counsel are currently investigating Russia’s election interference and relationship with the Trump campaign.
Another shot across the bow. Love it.
We’re at a point where Republicans have more in common with Putin’s thugocracy than patriotic American Democrats. And they’re very upfront about it.
Republicans have gone from demanding Russia “tear down that wall” to being willing accomplices in tearing down our values.
Republicans should be required to prove they can answer a simple question before running for office: Which comes first, your party or your country?
Very few in the current GOP could prove they put country first, because right now there is someone who at every opportunity has put Russia’s interests before the USA’s and it’s sitting in the Oval office.
FBI need to investigate Cornyn and McConnell for ties to RU intelligence and get FINCEN records to sniff out any money laundering of RU money into their campaigns.
Cornyn may just be an idiot, but McConnell doesn’t have that excuse. He’s dirty. Count on it.
Time to investigate McConnell and Cornyn finances. Maybe they have been paid off by Russia.