Posted on 02/18/2017 5:07:32 PM PST by Para-Ord.45
...It was also secretive even by traditional standards: Although Comey was photographed leaving the meeting, committee members wouldn’t admit that he’d been there. And it seemed as though the briefing was urgent, with senators delaying their departure during a weekend recess to hear what Comey had to say.
The Senate Intel Committee considers all manner of intelligence matters so in theory the briefing could have been about anything. Most recently, though, the Committee’s been in the news because it’s leading the congressional investigation into Russian interference in last year’s presidential campaign. Three days ago, after Mike Flynn resigned, Mitch McConnell said he thought it was “highly likely” that the Committee would include Flynn’s interactions with the Russian ambassador as part of its broader inquiry. And now suddenly Comey’s on the Hill, amid unusual secrecy, addressing them in what seems to have been an especially important briefing.
Still, we need more than that to suspect that the briefing was about Flynn, Russia, and/or Trump campaign advisors’ “constant communications” with Russian officials during the campaign. Which … is where Marco Rubio comes in:
"I am now very confident Senate Intel Comm I serve on will conduct thorough bipartisan investigation of #Putin interference and influence"
The word “now” strongly suggests that something that just came to light has convinced him and the rest of the Committee to treat the Russia matter even more gravely than they had before. The word “bipartisan” is significant too, as Democrats were of course already gung ho to investigate. Rubio seems to be suggesting that whatever Comey told them was so serious that Republicans would be eager to get to the bottom of it too.
Has part or all of Comey’s information leaked to the media, with stories already in the works about the mysterious allegations? It didn’t occur to me at the time that there was anything more to Trump’s tweet yesterday about the media as “enemies of the people” than the president being in one of his peevish moods, but David Frum had some interesting speculation about the possible cause of that peevishness:
"Decoded: one or more of NYT, CNN or NBCNews has a very very damaging story in the pipeline …"
That’s just a theory, but if something big is about to drop, the papers may well have already contacted the White House for comment about it, alerting Trump that it’s coming and ticking him off. Could be that Frum’s wrong, of course, or it could be that he’s right but the big scoop has nothing to do with what Comey told the Intelligence Committee. We’ll probably know this week.
Update: Lo and behold, here’s Reuters with a new story this afternoon claiming that Comey’s FBI is running no fewer than three separate investigations into Russian hacking during the campaign. “This counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.”
What happened first, the meeting or rubio’s tweet? Ruboi’s tweet was 4:59 PM · Feb 17, 2017
Not sure which was first but check out the thread below. It seems the intelligence committee is focused on election hacking.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3526929/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3526626/posts?page=46#46
Peter Gunn wrote:
“There was never just one transcript although each one purported to be unique. My guess is several were circulated. Canaries have unique songs.”
More than one transcript...
Interesting!!
Excellent point !!!!
If it has to do with the 3 Muzzie Bros, then the meeting might have dealt with what info they gathered.
And to whom it was sent.
gaijin wrote:
“Something to which I assign not the highest or a low credence rating:
A brief portion of the Flynn/Russian telephone conversation touched on the recently popular topic of pedophiles and apparently one of them is a close boyhood friend of VP PENCE, which might be why he flipped out and made sure Flynn got fired.
This is just an FYI of that claim, which I found interesting.”
Can you post a link to where you saw that? FRmail as necessary...
I don’t trust Pence at all. He’s 100% establishment.
You know, I went to Rubio’s twitter account and found the actual tweet and highlighted the date and time. It was sent out at 11:59 am. Now might that reflect my personal twitter set up? Maybe.
Abigkahuna
OK rubio was in DC when he tweeted.
That’s an hour different from where I’m at.
This link says 4:59pm; I just checked it:
https://mobile.twitter.com/marcorubio/status/832726071938162688
How many hours different between DC and where you’re at?
Freepmail if needed .
https://mobile.twitter.com/marcorubio/status/832726071938162688
What time shows up when you go to that tweet?
I get 4:59pm when I check it.
It says 5:59 pm - maybe time zones apply?
Bump for later.
I got 4:59
Left coast. So three hours difference. Maybe my account is set up reflecting Thai time or something. Too bad...last night I went to CNN’s facebook and reamed them. Ha! They deserve it anyway.
Chuckie was there. Per an earlier post today: Senators Silent After Meeting With FBI Director Comey: "Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with ex-officio member and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, huddled for a total of more than two hours on Friday with Comey."
The fact that nothing has leaked yet suggests to me that the topic was something potentially very damaging to democrats.
If Chuckie was there and it hasn’t leaked yet that is very interesting.
Largest Spy Scandal In American History Warned Could Collapse Entire U.S. Government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xEupNnvT44&feature=share
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