CIA provides binders full of classified evidence on Donald Trump and Russia to Senate Intel Committee

| 12:30 pm EST March 7, 2017
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Even as various other committees in the House and Senate continue to play evolving and fuzzy roles in investigating Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, it’s been clear for some time that the Senate Intelligence Committee would lead the way in the Congressional investigation. Accordingly, the CIA has begun providing the members of that committee with binders full of classified Trump-Russia evidence today.

Senate Intel Committee members from both parties have now begun individually traveling to CIA headquarters in Langley to review what one Senator has described as “four large binders full of classified information.” Of course the Senators can’t publicly disclose what that evidence consists of, due to its nature. But it does reveal just how much intel the CIA has been amassing with regard to Donald Trump and Russia in private, even as the political scandal has played out in public — and the classified nature of it means this is serious evidence, not just a paper chase.

The turning point for the Senate Intelligence Committee appeared to have occurred two weeks ago when it held a secret meeting with FBI Director James Comey in a secure room in the Senate basement. Shortly after that meeting, Republican Senator Susan Collins began taking an aggressive public posture over the Trump-Russia investigation, including calling for the testimony of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and threatening to subpoena Donald Trump’s tax returns. With the support of Collins, the Democrats on the committee gained de facto majority control of the investigation.

As we reported at the time, Democratic Senator Mark Warner announced that the committee had taken steps to ensure that Donald Trump’s White House couldn’t destroy the relevant Trump-Russia evidence needed for the investigation. And based on today’s news that the CIA has that evidence, it appears that Trump has indeed failed to destroy it. Contribute to Palmer Report