Russia tried to aid nominee Trump: US Senate committee

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – The Republican and Democratic chairs of the Senate intelligence committee said Wednesday they concur with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump.

“After a thorough review, our staff concluded that the ICA conclusions were accurate and on point,” Vice Chairman Mark Warner said in a joint statement, referring to the Intelligence Community Assessment. “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” the Democrat who competed against Trump for the presidency.

Republican Committee Chair Richard Burr added that after 14 months of evaluation his committee sees “no reason to dispute the conclusions”.

Their joint determination stands apart from that of Republicans on the House intelligence committee, who said they found no evidence to support the conclusion that Russia sought to help Trump -- who ran as a Republican -- through what intelligence officials have called a concerted and multi-faceted “influence campaign”.

House Republicans instead sought to blame the FBI for alleged failures in the bureau’s response to the alleged Russian effort.

Trump, who has steadfastly denied suggestions of collusion and has repeatedly called a special counsel probe into the matter a “witch hunt”, rejoiced in the House Republican determination on Twitter last month, but has yet to comment publicly on the Senate panel’s conclusions.

The Senate intelligence committee has not yet issued a determination on the collusion allegations, but earlier Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee released nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts of its interviews with top Trump campaign officials, including Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son.

- Trump Tower meeting

The documents demonstrate a desire in the Trump campaign to find dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, embodied in a June 2016 sit-down with a Russian lawyer with deep connections to the Kremlin the lawyer in question initially denied having.

The meeting at Trump Tower in New York with Natalia Veselnitskaya included Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Kushner and Manafort declined to be interviewed by the committee, instead issuing statements that were also made public Wednesday.

Trump Jr. told lawmakers he did not recall telling his father about the meeting, and Robert Goldstone, a British publicist who arranged the meeting, told the committee he expected to find a "smoking gun" on Clinton during the meeting with Veselnitskaya.

That did not materialize, and Trump Jr. said his initial skepticism going into the meeting was validated when he determined Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss a U.S. law intended to punish Russian officials and adoptions of Russians by U.S. families.

After initially denying ties to the Russian government during written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veselnitskaya later told NBC News she is an informant for Russia’s top lawyer as damaging emails she appeared to corroborate were leaked to the press.