Pols bicker on end of elex briefs

Nothin’ to see here?

A top Senate Republican said Sunday the recent cancellation of briefings on election security is no biggie.

“This is being blown so way out of proportion. I can probably count on one or two fingers the things that are actually classified in those briefings,” Sen. Ron Johnson (inset) of Wisconsin, who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said on CNN. “There is no surprise here.”

Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence canceled in-person briefings to Congress about threats to November elections, though written updates will continue.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe blamed leaks to the media for the change.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) decried the move.

“You can state things in a written report that are not correct, and you can’t be subject to questioning about it,” he said on CNN. “When you can hide behind documents or withhold documents and not have to answer questions about it, it lets you conceal the truth.”

The feds’ avoidance of probing the full picture of President Trump’s ties to Russia was a deliberate move, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein blocked anyinvestigationofTrump’spersonal and business relationships with Russia in 2017 after deciding there wasn’t enough reason for doing so, unnamed former law enforcement officials told the Times.

Rosenstein reportedly thought investigators were “acting too hastily” following Trump’s May 2017 firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the paper reported.

He told Special Counsel Robert Mueller to limit his investigation to potential election-related impropriety by the Trump campaign, the Times said.

The probe led to the president’s impeachment last year, though the Justice Department decided not to pursue charges against him.