The Senate Intelligence Committee is seeking to ensure that records related to Russia’s alleged intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections are preserved as it begins investigating that country’s ties to the Trump team. The panel sent more than a dozen letters to “organizations, agencies and officials” on Friday, asking them to preserve materials related to the congressional investigation, according to a Senate aide, who was not authorized to comment publicly. The Senate Intelligence Committee is spearheading the most comprehensive probe on Capitol Hill of Russia’s alleged activities in the elections. The letters went out the same day that FBI Director James B. Comey huddled for almost two hours with the committee’s Senate members in a closed-door briefing in the Capitol. Senators emerged from that meeting especially tight-lipped about what transpired, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) breaking the silence by tweeting the next day that he was “now very confident” the committee “will conduct thorough bipartisan investigation of #Putin interference and influence.”
The committee’s missives came just days after Trump asked Michael Flynn for his resignation as national security adviser, after the revelation that he misled Vice President Pence about his communications with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, between Trump’s election and inauguration. Flynn’s departure prompted an outcry among lawmakers for closer scrutiny of his contact with Kislyak.
Democrats in particular are demanding a full record of documents and transcripts pertaining to the Flynn call, in which intelligence officials say he discussed sanctions on Russia, “before they destroy them,” as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) put it.
Full Article: Senate Intelligence Committee asks for Russia-related records to be preserved – The Washington Post.