Russia continues to say

Funny how the Republicans decided late afternoon of the day before a mid-summer holiday would be the ideal time to release their report on the Russian interference with the 2016 election.

The report comes five days after Trump seemed to endorse Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial, in the face of US intelligence agencies’ conclusions, that Russian interfered in the 2016 election: “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

We know! Of course they do! People lie sometimes! Russia has been known to lie! The fact that Russia says it doesn’t make it true! Is this the way you did business, taking everyone’s word for everything?!

While Republicans in the House have openlyaimed to discredit the Justice Department’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russian ties, Tuesday’s seven-page report saw the Senate committee’s Republicans siding with US intelligence and law enforcement, including the FBI.

However reluctantly and 3 p.m. on the 3d of Julyly.

The report endorses the January 6, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, or ICA, finding Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 with the goals of undermining Americans’ faith in the democratic process and denigrating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The assessment also concludes that Russia “developed a clear preference for” Trump.

“The ICA is a sound intelligence product,” the committee says, noting it was produced after “reasonable, transparent and open” debate. The committee said intelligence analysts they interviewed reported “no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions,” and noted that the CIA and FBI had “high confidence” that Russia favored Trump, while the National Security Agency had “moderate confidence.”

Senators are there for a minimum of six years; that probably makes them a little less flaky than Representatives.

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