Re: *Prompter Thread* (NO Personal Attacks, Trolling, breaking 52 USC 30121 OR 2 USC
Pelosi, Schiff, Warner, and Schumer send letter to FBI requesting a defense counterintelligence brief for all members of Congress: https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/72020-2
Quote:
We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November.
|
One of the Dems' concerns is that Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis) has become a vehicle for "laundering" a foreign influence campaign of disinformation in an attempt to damage the Presidential campaign of Joe Biden: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...ampaign-373134
Quote:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded the all-Congress briefing Monday, citing “specific” intelligence that a foreign influence operation targeted lawmakers to “launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity.”
Though the letter did not mention the Johnson investigation, it included a classified addendum that the two sources say identified the probe as one of the sources of their concern.
|
Quote:
The last time senators were briefed on election security and foreign influence operations, Democratic lawmakers confronted Johnson behind closed doors about his investigation, arguing that it threatens the integrity of the 2020 election and relies on Russian disinformation to tar a political opponent.
They cited in particular Johnson’s initial effort to subpoena Andrii Telizhenko, who has pushed unsubstantiated claims about coordination between the Ukrainian government and the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Johnson dropped plans to subpoena Telizhenko after the FBI’s foreign influence task force briefed senators about him, focusing on concerns over his credibility.
Some Senate Republicans, too, have previously signaled unease with Johnson’s investigation. In December, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, privately told Johnson that his inquiry could aid Russia, according to two congressional sources familiar with the meeting. And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned in February that any derogatory information coming out of Ukraine about any American should be vetted by intelligence agencies because “Russia is playing us all like a fiddle.”
|
Note that Ron Johnson was one of a handful of Republican senators that took a 4th of July trip to Russia in 2018 to meet with Vladimir Putin. Upon return, Johnson took a more vocal position, saying that Russian interference was "overblown".
Something to watch as we get closer to November. The hardliners in the GOP have gone all-in on corruption and are doubling down on the strategy that got the President impeached. They are more open than ever to accepting election interference when it helps them, and have bent the knee to Putin.
__________________
We lead not only by example of our power, but by the power of our example.
We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line! Don't forget it!
Last edited by BTBaboon; 07-21-2020 at 05:32 AM.
|