Trump Denies Dems Access To Sensitive Russia Meeting – Documents Remain Hidden

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Throughout the long and arduous Russia scandal, President Donald Trump and his associates have proven themselves to be no friend of those who are interested in truly uncovering the truth in the whole situation. Instead, they prefer to aim to keep the truth hidden underneath at times seemingly endless coverings of secrets and lies.

There’s now another apparent covering that the White House is gearing up to use, but the administration itself is playing down its significance.

This past Monday, it came out that Justice Department leaders had agreed to share some of the key documents underlying the Russia investigation with members of Congress. Republicans in particular have focused their fire on the Justice Department over any possible interests that actually colluded with Russia or carried on with anything illegal, much to the unsurprising ire of Democrats.

Although a ton of details about the hand-off weren’t immediately clear, there are now more and they aren’t promising. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders shared that a core group of national intelligence officials are set to share information with Congressional leaders on Thursday of this week, but only Republican Congressional leaders will be at that meeting.

The meeting will include FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, and Acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan on the DOJ side and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on the Congressional side.

In the past, Devin Nunes has proven determined to serve the Trump administration in his investigative efforts to the point of prompting a rare rebuke from Trump appointee Christopher Wray himself. That rebuke came as Nunes sought to have a memo he’d had drawn up outlining alleged abuses of power at the DOJ targeting the Trump camp released to the public, a move Wray opposed.

In the face of that tension, the upcoming meeting was agreed to during a meeting on Monday between the president, Wray, Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and White House chief of staff John Kelly. The at times contentious chief of staff was tasked with helping set up the meeting, but neither he himself nor any other White House official will actually be attending the Thursday meeting, Sanders explained.

When pressed as to why Democrats hadn’t been invited to the meeting, Sanders deflected blame.

She said:

‘To my knowledge, the Democrats have not requested that information so I would refer you back to them on why they would consider themselves randomly invited to see something they’ve never asked to.’

The full scope of the information set to be shared with lawmakers on Thursday is not immediately clear. In the wake of reporting about an informant helping authorities’ investigation into possible Trump team ties to Russia, the president and some of his allies have proven determined to uncover some sort of conspiracy underlying that aspect to the investigation — whether there is one or not.

Well outside of the acute circumstances of the meeting that will take place Thursday, the Trump administration has established itself as opposed to letting the actual unfiltered truth get out, so the fact that only Republican are set to be at the meeting is well poised to be suspicious.

Featured Image via T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg via Getty Images