In a really interesting press conference today about the Senate Intel Committee’s investigation into Russian collusion, Richard Burr admitted that they have hit a WALL on the dossier about Donald Trump that was supposedly gathered from Russian intelligence.
Watch below:
Sen. Richard Burr: "As it relates to the Steele, dossier, unfortunately the committee has hit a wall" https://t.co/YzPdzFnbNX
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 4, 2017
Burr does NOT say that they think the dossier is completely false, but says that without the cooperation of the author of the dossier, who was a British spy, they just can’t continue and cannot conclude anything about it.
Sen. Richard Burr: Can't decide credibility of Steele dossier "without understanding things like who paid for it" https://t.co/PKNxE8DY1w
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) October 4, 2017
Ranking Democrat committee member Mark Warner then says that the threat from Russia is now being taken seriously by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Sen. Mark Warner says social media platforms are now "recognizing" the threat from Russia https://t.co/36jkfomZeh
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 4, 2017
On the issue of collusion, some are mistaking their comments to mean there’s no evidence of it. Like this lady:
BURR says cmtee has found no evidence of collusion: "I'm not going to even discuss initial findings, because we haven't any."
— Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) October 4, 2017
But Burr specifically says that the issue of collusion is still open:
Sen. Richard Burr on the Russia investigation: "The issue of collusion is still open" https://t.co/zOwGrLL7Xw
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 4, 2017
Westwood, who works at the Washington Examiner, is apparently talking about this quote from the hearing at about the 5 minute mark (cued up):
But that’s not exactly what he said. He didn’t say there’s no *evidence* of collusion, he simply said that they are not ready to report any *findings.* That means they have no conclusions, they’re just collecting more information. And that could go either way – no where, or… somewhere big.