The Senate Intelligence Committee including its Republican Chairman Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) have released a preliminary report that agrees with the intelligence community's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an operation to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Donald Trump.
From Politico:
“I’ve heard nothing to contradict anything from the [intelligence community assessment] particularly in terms of the fact Russian massively intervened in our elections to the purpose of helping Mr. Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” the committee's top Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia, told reporters after the committee held a closed hearing with intelligence committee leaders.
The committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said the panel would issue a full report on its findings after a declassification review by the intelligence community.
But in a statement, Burr said: "Committee staff have spent 14 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft, and analytic work, and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions. There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections."
Unlike the House Intelligence Committee's investigation which was overseen by chairman and treacherous stooge Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Senate committee actually interviewed a large number of witnesses and persons of interest whom the House never spoke to.
Unlike Chairman Devin Nunes, Chairman Richard Burr appears to have been interested in actually presenting a clear and comprehensive look at what happened during the 2016 election.
We've already learned a lot from the Senate Intelligence Committee's initial report, including the fact that Russians used the NRA to communicate with and help the Trump campaign. The committee's investigation also tells us Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was "infuriated" when the Russians didn't immediately deliver the dirt on Clinton at Trump Tower like they promised. And Donald Trump Jr. is guilty as hell.
You can read the initial report from Senate Democrats on the Intelligence Committee here.
This is how it begins:
As discussed in more detail below, the Trump campaign accepted this offer of “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton],” which was also described as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Top campaign officials Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. did not reject the offer of election assistance from a hostile foreign government. Nor did they report this offer to law enforcement authorities. Instead, they attended the meeting. Afterwards, Donald Trump Jr. issued misleading statements, with assistance from the White House, that concealed the meeting’s true purpose.
At the very least, they tried to collude.
The Senate Intelligence Committee's full report is expected to be 1,000 pages long and it will be released after it's reviewed by the intelligence community for possible classified or sensitive information.