WASHINGTON – In a 1,000-page two-part report released Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee said the Trump administration had obstructed its investigation with “new claims” of executive privilege. It painted a portrait of a Trump campaign envied in 2016 for helping to accept a foreign power.
The Prime Minister’s report, the most detailed report to date on the environment of the Trump campaign of Russian election interference, also claimed that the accusations made by Ukraine in the elections – which President Donald Trump perpetuated – originated at Russian intelligence agencies.
The report highlighted some never-before-seen evidence about Trump and Russia, including three allegations of potentially compromising material regarding Trump’s private trips to Russia unrelated to the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
“Separating from Steele’s memos, which the commission did not use for support, the commission became aware of three general sets of allegations,” involving women, the report said, two of which described a tape. No such allegations were confirmed, but the finding allowed new credibility for at least one claim in the widely discredited Steele case.
The commission endorsed the view of Specialist Advocate Robert Mueller and the prosecution team Roger Stone that the Trump campaign embraced Russian aid in 2016, and considered the hacked emails as their “October surprise”, although campaign officials knew the material was Russian intelligence was stolen.
“While the GRU and WikiLeaks brought hacked documents, the Trump campaign sought to maximize the impact of these materials to help Trump’s election prospects,” the report said. “To do this, the Trump campaign took action to gain prior knowledge of WikiLeaks releases from Clinton emails; it took steps to obtain information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began publishing stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and after their release; and encouraged further theft of information and ongoing leaks. “
The commission said it also developed evidence that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort may be linked to the Russian operation to steal and leak Democratic emails. If that had been proved in court, it would have meant “conspiracy” by any definition, but no such charge was ever brought. Manafort was convicted of fraud and tax charges unrelated to Russia,
The commission found that the Trump transition exposed him to Russian influence.
“Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team’s experience, transparent opposition to the Obama administration’s policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia’s diplomacy could perform, “the report said. “The lack of comprehension of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business leaders.”
It added, “Russian officials, intelligence agencies, and others acting on behalf of the Kremlin were able to exploit the shortcomings of the Transition to Russian advantage. Based on available information, it is possible – and even likely – that they they did. “
Regarding Ukraine, the report said that Russian government workers consistently spread from the end of 2016 until at least January 2020 “overlapping false narratives that sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and spread false information about the 2016 events.”
The report said that Manafort associate Konstatin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, “almost certainly helped regulate some of the first public messages that Ukraine had interfered in the US election.”
In 2017, the report said, “other proxy and personas of Russian government worked to spread the false narrative that Ukraine interfered in the US elections.”
The commission “did not identify any credible evidence that the Ukrainian government was involved in the US elections in 2016.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
