On CNN last night, Don Lemon had Rep. Mike Quigley, Democrat on the House Select Intelligence committee, as a guest.
"Let's talk now about Mariia Butina, the Russian agent indicted on those charges including acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy," Lemon said.
"A Russian official told her via Twitter it's not about winning today's fight. This is a battle for the future, it cannot be lost. To which Butina replied 'true.' And she wrote this, 'I am ready for further orders.' What do you think was going on here?"
"Let me tell you, she was high on our list on the Democratic side to interview on the House Select Committee intelligence investigation.
"The Republicans refused to allow her to come testify. They refused multiple -- I would say there's probably 30 other key witnesses like her that they refused to bring before the committee."
Lemon asked why he thought Republicans blocked it.
"Well, for the same reason they shut the investigation down: They didn't like where it was going," Quigley said.
"Thank God the Mueller investigation continues so the American public can get a glimmer through the indictments last week and this indictment today of just what took place. It is a path towards the White House.
"More and more communications, more and more ties with the Russians involving politics and finance and personal dealings. The fact that we were shut down, they refused to allow subpoenas to go forward involving the gun rights group she formed in Russia and its connection to the NRA, the fact there were so many other documents they refused to subpoena.
"They refused to subpoena anyone and make them answer questions. They went along with the White House insisting no one had to answer our questions. That sounds like they wanted to work with the White House to protect it politically and legally not get to the truth.
"In 2017 this woman reportedly demanded 15 seats in a personal invitation from Trump. Putin didn't end up going but Butina did. There's some video on her at the (National Prayer) breakfast on-screen now.
"The more documents we read and started to untangle this, I guess, tangled web they wove when they first attempted to deceive. The connection with the NRA as a potential conduit didn't make sense to me. But, again, the fact is we weren't able to get to the bottom of it because they refused to bring her before us or subpoena the documents that would have helped us understand the whole matter."
Let that sink in.
By the time this mess is over, I expect some very prominent Republicans will be rolled up in the Mueller probe. Because as we saw with his Mafia prosecutions, you have to clean out the nest.
