Amid Revelations Sessions Spoke to Russian Ambassador, House Intelligence Committee Commits to Investigating Trump-Russia Connection

California Republican Devin Nunes, chair of the Intelligence Committee, has agreed to cooperate with Democrats in an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election on the same day that it was revealed Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with the Russian Ambassador twice last year and failed to disclose the conversations.

Less than twenty-four hours after President Trump’s remarkably restrained policy address to Congress, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee released a statement asserting that the committee will be investigating any role played by Russia in the 2016 Presidential election.

According to the statement, the investigation will seek to answer the following questions:

• “What Russian cyber activity and other active measures were directed against the United States and its allies?”
• “Did the Russian active measures include links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns or any other U.S. persons?”
• “What was the U.S. Government’s response to these Russian active measures and what do we need to do to protect ourselves and our allies in the future?”
• “What possible leaks of classified information took place related to the Intelligence Community Assessment of these matters?”

The chairman of the committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA) said, “The Intelligence Committee has been investigating Russia for years and warning about the Putin regime’s hostile international actions, its aggression in cyber space, and its influential international propaganda campaigns. The committee is determined to continue and expand its inquiries into these areas, including Russian activities related to the 2016 U.S. elections. On a bipartisan basis, we will fully investigate all the evidence we collect and follow that evidence wherever it leads.”

The House investigation will become the third active investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, joining investigations already underway in the Senate’s Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn was already forced to resign last month amid revelations he had communicated with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and subsequently misinformed Vice President Pence about the phone call.

Additionally, the Washington Post broke the story today that Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with the Russian Ambassador twice last year. This would appear to directly contradict the statement he made during his confirmation hearing that “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Administration officials have so far defended Sessions, saying that the then-Attorney General nominee had not considered his conversations with Kislyak relevant to the question asked during his confirmation hearing, and that he did not remember in detail what they discussed.

Despite Trump’s improving media coverage recently, as he appears to have succeeded in lowering ‘the bar’ to the point where reading off of a teleprompter sends everyone rushing to rationalize him, it remains clear that the questions surrounding his campaign and administration’s relationship to Russia aren’t going anywhere.

Despite an expressed bipartisan will to investigate, one of the most significant hurdles any investigation has yet to clear would be to subpoena President Trump’s tax records.

In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told investors in Moscow that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets” and “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. There’s indeed a lot of money coming for new-builds and resale reflecting a trend in the Russian economy and, of course, the weak dollar versus the ruble.”

While a business relationship between any Trump businesses and Russia itself would not necessarily be incriminating, it is worth considering in the broader context of the President’s refusal to release his tax returns, Secretary of State Tillerson’s significant business interests in the country, and the partially corroborated Steele dossier’s allegation that Trump would receive 19% of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in exchange for lifting sanctions — followed up by Russia selling 19.5% of Rosneft to anonymous owners.

Therefore, it would seem that a committee’s determination to investigate President Trump’s financial interests might serve as one indicator of how serious they are. Another significant factor will likely be whether they bring in Administration officials such as Flynn and Sessions for hearings to press them on their contradictory statements regarding Russian contacts.