Hiding a Flynn Investigation in Plain Sight
Don’t Let Congress Bury an Investigation in the Intelligence Committees
It has been clear that the Trump administration’s ties to Russia required investigation. Following Mike Flynn’s resignation, it has become imperative. Even some Republicans, loath so far to challenge President Trump, are publicly starting to call for an investigation — with Senators Blunt (MO) and Cornyn (TX) calling for the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate Flynn’s behavior.
This is a good step. But beware, putting this investigation in the hands of the Senate Intelligence Committee is going to bury it.
Since 2012, the Senate Intel Committee has held 273 hearings (not counting nominee hearings.) Of those hearings, only 11 have been open to the public. If you go to the Senate Committee’s website — you can see the lack of information for yourself.
That means for the other 262, the public doesn’t know the topic, who testified, or what was said in those hearings. Except for one or two cleared individuals, even Senators’ staff don’t know what happened in these hearings.
The committee also has a poor record on investigations in the last few years. In 2009, the committee decided to investigate the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs, where allegations of torture had been reported during the Bush administration. While a Democratic priority, the investigation started with bipartisan support — the investigation was approved by a bipartisan 14–1 vote.
The committee staff took years to research and write the report and the final version of what is commonly known as the Senate Intel “Torture Report” was approved in December of 2012. By this point, the bipartisan support had disappeared and the final report was approved by a mostly partisan 9–6 vote.
It took another two years (April 2014) before the committee voted to release any of the report to the public. Finally in December 2014 — FIVE years after the investigation was approved — the public received access to a 525 page summary of the 6,000 page report. The entire report remains classified and available to only a small number of people throughout the government.
While the secrecy surrounding the Intelligence Committee’s work is often understandable, it is a terrible vehicle to try to inform the public. And on this issue, the public must be informed.
Even with Flynn’s resignation, a number of serious allegations remain about the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia.
- Trump’s previous campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was forced to resign from the campaign after it was discovered he had received $12m from a pro-Russia party in the Ukraine.
- Trump’s original foreign policy advisor Carter Page has been the subject of an FBI investigation over his relationships in Russia.
- The former CIA director testified to Congress that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assist Trump.
- Last week, CNN confirmed that U.S. intelligence has corroborated parts of the ‘Buzzfeed Dossier.’ The dossier alleges that the Trump campaign had relationships with Russia intelligence and that the Russian government holds compromising information on Donald Trump.
- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received an “Order of Friendship” medal from Vladimir Putin in 2013 and calls a Russia oligarch a friend.
- Donald Trump says he has no business interests in Russia, but Donald Trump Jr. said “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
Russia presents a significant risk to the United States and is currently working to undermine the elections of American allies in Europe. This issues needs to be more than just another partisan fight — our security and democracy are both at risk.
Congress and the public need to know the truth about the Trump administration’s ties to Russia. If President Trump is compromised, then an informed public will be easier to mobilize in response. And if President Trump is innocent of the worst of the allegations surrounding him, it is in his — and America’s interest — to have this cleared and not hanging over his administration the next four years.
You can have a say in what happens next — public pressure will push Congress to act. If your Senator is calling for an Intelligence Committee investigation, call them and thank them for caring about American security. BUT tell them you also want to know the details of this investigation and that can only be done through an open special investigative committee.
If your Senator is staying quiet on this or saying no investigation is necessary, call them and tell them to do better.
The Senate switchboard number is (202) 224–3121. If you don’t know your Senator, you can search by ZIP code here.
Finally, you can also support my organization’s effort to end Donald Trump’s foreign business conflicts here: www.putusfirst.us
Scott Payne is a former Senate national security staffer and Co-Director of the #PutUSFirst campaign, focused on eliminating Donald Trump’s foreign conflicts.
