Russiagate Collusion Refutation

rep. mike conaway, the top republican on house intelligence committee leading the russia probe, announces the panel has found no evidence of trump-russia collusion; will share draft report with democratic minority tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/G2pFBgr4mt

— kelly cohen (@politiCOHEN_) March 12, 2018

Byron York: House Intel releases verdict in Russia probe: No collusion

On the question of Putin's motivation, Conaway said Republican investigators viewed the same intelligence that the Intelligence Community did in making its assessment. But they differed with the IC, not on the fact that Russia acted, but on Vladimir Putin's purposes.

"It was clear that he was sowing discord in our elections," Conaway said, "pitting one American against another, tried to influence it through social media and other things. But we couldn't establish the same conclusion that the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump."

Mission accomplished, with a lot of help from Democrats and the media. Hot Air: GOP House Intel Committee: No Evidence Of Collusion Between Russia And Trump Campaign

The committee is widely expected to issue two competing reports: one from Republicans that concludes no evidence of collusion was found, and another from Democrats that argues a case for collusion, as well as spells out all the avenues the committee did not investigate.

Via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 03.12.18", Power Line has House Intel Committee Concludes No Collusion:

The committee also disputes the CIA’s claim that Russia’s regime interfered in our presidential election in order to help Donald Trump win. I think they are clearly correct in this. No evidence has ever been released that supports the CIA’s claim, which I think is partisan in origin. Further, it fundamentally makes no sense, both because the Russians, reading the Washington Post, the New York Times and 538, undoubtedly thought Hillary had the election sewed up, and also because the last thing Russia has ever wanted is a Republican, “America first” president.

The Democrats, led by the appalling Adam Schiff, presumably will respond in some fashion. But it won’t be easy: if the Democrats want to dispute the committee’s finding of no collusion, they will finally, at long last, have to produce some evidence.

Ace: House Panel Set to Announce That No "Collusion" With RUSSIA Occurred in Election, and Issue Report

Here's one question: if Trump and Russia agreed to "collude," and our intelligence agencies decided it was "likely" that Hillary's secret serve had been hacked by hostile foreign powers (like: Russia), why did Russia never follow through on its part of the deal and release those emails?

Silly Ace; this was never about logic. Adam Schiff is disappointed; he was hoping to "investigate" Trump forever: Republicans End House Russia Probe Over Democrats’ Objections

Representative Adam Schiff of California, the panel’s top Democrat said Republicans on the committee have been under pressure to end the investigation and doing so now “represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch."

“By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the majority has placed the interests of protecting the president over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly,” Schiff added.

Sentiments echoed by Democratic former criminal Attorney General Eric Holder: UTTER HYPOCRISY: Eric Holder Rips House Committee For Wrapping Up Russia Probe: 'This Is A Coverup.'

Let us take a moment to review Mr. Holder’s record.

Four years after Congress requested documents relating to the “gun walking” scandal, Holder’s DOJ finally produced them: 20,000 pages worth.

The Fast and Furious scandal started when in 2010, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent was killed patrolling the Mexican border. The only two firearms found at the scene were semi-automatic rifles Holder’s DOJ allowed to “walk” as part of Fast and Furious, an operation that permitted roughly 2,000 firearms to be received by Mexican cartel associates.

You might remember he was convicted of "Contempt of Congress" in that little episode, but since it would have required the DOJ which he headed to prosecute, it was just an honorific. Besides, don't we all hold Congress in contempt?

And the usual suspects were quiet as they tried to suppress the news: Nets Give Less than a Minute to House Committee’s ‘No Collusion’ Findings

CBS Evening News only gave 31 seconds to the House committee’s findings. “Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee said there was no collusion or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election,” reported anchor Jeff Glor. “They also say that while Russia tried to interfere with the elections, they do not agree with U.S. intelligence that the Russians were trying to help Donald Trump.”
. . .
Meanwhile, on ABC’s World News Tonight, they only gave the development 27 seconds, which meant the three major network news outlets (ABC, CBS, and NBC) gave the story less than a minute of combined airtime (58 seconds).
. . .
While NBC Nightly News completely ignored the committee’s findings, they managed to find time to whine about President Trump’s school safety plan being light on gun control, a Powerball winner, and billionaire Warren Buffett’s $1 million March Madness bracket challenge. All told, it's a demonstration of their priorities when a big news story broke.

I still have a digital bucket full of fresh Russiagate news and opinion, but in the interest of not diluting the end of the House probe with a lot of extraneous matters, I think I'll end this one here.