The Republicans leading the House Intelligence committee decided to give all those who came before them a pass. There were no pointed followup questions, no subpoenas, no return visits for the testifying. For certain, there was no releasing the committee’s transcripts of those hearings, because what was in them is dynamite.
Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that sending the transcripts to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was a top priority. At the time, they were being stored in the basement under the Republicans lock and key. Democrats took the House in 2018, so now Democrats chair all the investigative committees after two years of submissive Republicans’ Trump protection.
These transcripts for Mueller will go through the process of declassification review.
After a sham of hearings, the Republicans released a report. It said that the committee had found “no collusion” between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. However, it did mention that both Trump and President Bill Clinton exhibited “poor judgment and ill-considered actions.”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will use those transcripts to back up other evidence, especially to prove when various Trump people perjured themselves. The FBI went to longtime adviser to the president Roger Stone’s house in the dark morning hours and removed evidence.
Mueller officially requested the committee’s transcripts in December. On December 20, the committee voted that it could transmit their transcript of Stone testifying. After all, Trump’s 40-year-friend had been charged with lying to the Intelligence Committee about his contacts with Wikileaks and the Trump campaign in December. Of course, he pled not guilty.
The Intelligence Committee will give Mueller transcripts from over 50 interviews it conducted while the Republicans were still in charge. The committee was supposedly operating an investigation into Russia’s attack on the 2016 president election and conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is a member of the House Intelligence committee, he told ABC News about Stone:
‘You have to be straight with Congress. He wasn’t. And he’s paying the price now. And I suspect he won’t be the last.’
Mueller’s team only has the “substance” of the transcripts, not the full transcript. That means he cannot use them as evidence in the perjury case unless they have been formally transmitted from the Intelligence committee.
Schiff said:
‘Whether they could actually use the material in it as part of their report is also, I think, in question.’
The Democratically led Intelligence committee will operate a parallel investigation along side of Mueller’s Russian investigation. Then, they issue their own report on their probe.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
