Senate Democratic leaders agreed Wednesday to a bipartisan probe inside Congress of allegations that people linked to President Donald Trump – including ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn – had frequent contacts with Russia during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Democrats agreed to push forward with an ongoing Intelligence Committee investigation into Russia’s purported activities into the election, expanding the probe to include contacts made by Flynn and perhaps other Trump campaign officials with the Kremlin. They united around this course of action despite pressure from some Democrats to demand an independent commission to pursue the matter from outside Congress.
The decision was made at a Democratic conference meeting Wednesday morning hastily called by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer aimed to get his colleagues on the same page following a fresh report from the New York Times that Trump campaign aides spoke frequently with Russian intelligence operatives during the campaign. Flynn resigned Monday night after The Washington Post revealed that he spoke about sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States after the election.
Schumer; Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee; and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, explained their stance afterward in a joint appearance. They demanded that all committee investigations related to allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts with Trump surrogates be bipartisan and comprehensive and that panel members be “committed to making their findings as public as possible.”
Full Article: Senate Democrats unify around congressional probe of Trump ties to Russia – Chicago Tribune.