Seven days before the inauguration of our first Manchurian Candidate, Donald Trump, the Senate Intelligence Committee has decided it should probably investigate the incontrovertible evidence that Russia and Trump colluded to get him elected. Ya think?
It took 17 intelligence agency reports, an M16 agents report, numerous Russian allies working ON the campaign, photos of actual meetings of said campaign staff with Putin and his cronies and Trump giving Putin verbal bj's on stage for over a year for the government to actually decide to investigate.
Did I mention the inauguration is in 7 days?
McCain, Graham and others have tried to get an investigation started, but were rebuffed. So they gave up. Oh well.
Clearly, something changed today. Earlier this week, Buzzfeed published this insane dossier outlining Trump's deep ties to Russia. Then, late last night, the Washington Post reported that Flynn made numerous phone calls to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the very day that Obama was exacting sanctions for Russian hacking. Finally, the an investigation was opened on Thursday into Comey's involvement in the election, leading to Comey having a very very heated meeting with the House today regarding the Russian election disruption.
Honestly, any one of these things would have led to an investigation if we were talking about Hillary Clinton. But Trump? Meh.
Tonight, Politico is reporting that the Senate Intelligence Committee has decided to *finally* investigate whether anything nefarious happened involving possible contact between the Trump campaign and Russia. Um, yes, there was. But can we prove it? And if so, what happens now? We have 7 days. SEVEN. DAYS.
Republican Senator Burr and the panel's top Democrat, Mark Warner, issued a joint statement saying that the investigation would focus on "intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns." They also stated that they would use subpoenas, if necessary, to get testimony from both the Obama administration and the Trump team. Whoo doggy, this is going to be interesting.
This announcement came hours after numerous House Democrats gave unusually public statements about their feelings following a classified briefing with FBI Director James Comey. Typically, no comments are made about classified briefings. But clearly, they were distressed enough that they could not hide their frustration and, in some cases, anger.
The real question is this: what can be done if this investigation shows true and irrefutable connections? If Trump is already in office, will he be impeached and charged with treason? If he gets into office, can he stop the investigation? Can they complete the investigation within 7 days? Can Obama delay the inauguration until the investigation is done?
