Senators expected to largely endorse intel report on Russian meddling sound alarm about next election
Richard Burr
The planned news conference from Sens. Richard Burr  R-N.C.  and Mark Warner  D-Va.  has been billed as a forum for the two panel leaders to give the public an interim status update on the committee's long-running investigation of allegations that Russia attempted to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections  and that members of the Trump campaign may have colluded with Kremlin officials to improve their chance of victory. It is one of only a handful of public events the Senate Intelligence Committee has held in the nine months since commencing its probe.
In the course of that investigation  committee members and staff investigators have interviewed several members of the intelligence community and Trump's inner circle  mostly behind closed doors - including former campaign chief Paul Manafort and current senior adviser Jared Kushner  who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law. They have also spoken with senior executives of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter  which carried many of the Russian-backed ads and falsified accounts that tried to exploit popular divisions in the run-up to the election. The committee is expected to continue those conversations in a public hearing with the tech giants early next month;  Burr  and Warner may share additional information about the social media-focused part of their probe on Wednesday.
The intelligence committee has had unprecedented access to classified files during the course of this investigation  and has spent significantly longer vetting the intelligence community's report than officials took to write it. Though  Burr  has set an aspirational deadline of wrapping up its probe by the end of the year   he  and Warner are not expected to release an interim report on Wednesday  according to sources familiar with their plans.
 Burr   Warner  and the spy chiefs they have called to testify before their panel in occasional public hearings have stressed that the 2016 election likely only emboldened Russia's resolve to meddle in future American elections  using similar tactics. Though 2018 is not a presidential election year  it could prove to be a pivotal contest for Congress - and the primary season begins in March  less than six months away.
The planned news conference from Sens.  [TGT]   R-N.C.  and Mark Warner  D-Va.  has been billed as a forum for the two panel leaders to give the public an interim status update on the committee's long-running investigation of allegations that Russia attempted to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections  and that members of the Trump campaign may have colluded with Kremlin officials to improve their chance of victory. It is one of only a handful of public events the Senate Intelligence Committee has held in the nine months since commencing its probe.
In the course of that investigation  committee members and staff investigators have interviewed several members of the intelligence community and Trump's inner circle  mostly behind closed doors - including former campaign chief Paul Manafort and current senior adviser Jared Kushner  who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law. They have also spoken with senior executives of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter  which carried many of the Russian-backed ads and falsified accounts that tried to exploit popular divisions in the run-up to the election. The committee is expected to continue those conversations in a public hearing with the tech giants early next month;  Burr  and Warner may share additional information about the social media-focused part of their probe on Wednesday.
The intelligence committee has had unprecedented access to classified files during the course of this investigation  and has spent significantly longer vetting the intelligence community's report than officials took to write it. Though  Burr  has set an aspirational deadline of wrapping up its probe by the end of the year   he  and Warner are not expected to release an interim report on Wednesday  according to sources familiar with their plans.
 Burr   Warner  and the spy chiefs they have called to testify before their panel in occasional public hearings have stressed that the 2016 election likely only emboldened Russia's resolve to meddle in future American elections  using similar tactics. Though 2018 is not a presidential election year  it could prove to be a pivotal contest for Congress - and the primary season begins in March  less than six months away.