Obama officials to testify on Russian poll interference
WASHINGTON: The scandal over Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election returns to the forefront of Washington politics after weeks, when two top officials from the Obama administration are set to testify in Congress.
Sally Yates — acting attorney general in the Trump administration for 10 days before being fired — could bring new pressure on the White House over what it knew about former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s communications with Russian officials.
Obama’s director of national intelligence James Clapper is also set to testify, after repeatedly warning of the need to get to the bottom of how the Russians interfered in the election, and whether anyone on President Donald Trump’s team colluded with Moscow. The case has simmered for weeks as attention focused elsewhere on what keynote legislation the president could push through in his first 100 days, reached on Sunday. Congressional investigations into the matter have also been held up by infighting between Democrats and Republicans over how aggressively to pursue a matter that continues to cast a cloud over Trump’s election win.
Trump this week repeated his dismissal of US intelligence chiefs’ conclusion that Moscow had sought to boost his campaign over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s in an effort overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with CBS’S “Face the Nation” program marking his 100 days, Trump again rejected the official view that Russians hacked Democratic Party computers and communications.“(it) could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups,” he said. On Tuesday, he again branded the whole story as fake. “The phony Trump/russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election,” he said on Twitter.
Trump’s dismissals notwithstanding, the Senate Judiciary Committee where Yates and Clapper appear tomorrow — and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are stepping up their probes, calling numerous current and former government witnesses to testify, mostly behind closed doors. And the FBI continues its own active investigation into possible collusion. The country’s top intelligence officials have no doubt Moscow tried to swing the election against Clinton last year through hacking and disinformation. Nor is there any doubt that people closely associated with the Trump campaign — including Flynn, onetime foreign affairs advisor Carter Page and campaign chairman Paul Manafort — all had ongoing contacts with Russians. But whether those contacts resulted in any collusion with Moscow remains unproved.
Asked on CNN this week if she had yet seen any evidence of collusion in private intelligence briefings, Senator Diane Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, responded: “Not at this time.” In Monday’s hearing, Yates an Obama deputy attorney general who was fired by Trump for refusing to support his immigration ban reportedly could testify that she warned the incoming administration in January that Flynn’s discussions with Russia’s US ambassador left him vulnerable. AUSTIN: Parents seeking to adopt children in Texas could soon be rejected by statefunded or private agencies with religious objections to them being Jewish, Muslim, gay, single, or interfaith couples, under a proposal advancing in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Five other states have passed similar laws protecting faith-based adoption organizations that refuse to place children with gay parents or other households on religious grounds but Texas’ rule extends to state-funded agencies. Only South Dakota’s is similarly sweepingly.
Republican sponsors of Texas’ bill, which is poised to pass Saturday in the state House, say it is designed to support the religious freedom of adoption agencies and foster care providers. Many of the agencies and are private and faith-based but receive state funds. But opponents say it robs children of stable homes while funding discrimination with taxpayer dollars.
“This would allow adoption agencies to turn away qualified, loving parents who are perhaps perfect in every way because the agency has a difference in religious belief,” said Catherine Oakley, senior legislative counsel.