Politics of Russia probe complicate budget and immigration negotiations

North Country Representative Elise Stefanik voted with her Republican and Democratic colleagues on the House intelligence committee to release a...

The U.S. Capitol. Photo: Kyle Rush, Creative Commons, some rights reserved

North Country Representative Elise Stefanik voted with her Republican and Democratic colleagues on the House intelligence committee to release a second classified memo about whether the FBI and Justice Department conspired against President Donald Trump.

Democrats on the panel wrote the memo in an effort to counter some of the arguments and evidence put forward by Republicans in a document of their own, declassified by Trump last week. Stefanik had voted to release the Republican memo.

It criticizes the methods the FBI used to obtain a surveillance warrant on a onetime Trump campaign associate.

A spokesman for Stefanik seemed to embrace those allegations last week. Tom Flanagin said the Justice Department needs "reform and accountability."

The president has five days to decide whether to allow publication of the Democratic memo.

North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) File photo: Rep. Stefanik on Facebook
North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) File photo: Rep. Stefanik on Facebook
In a statement yesterday, Flanagin said the congresswoman supports making both memos public in the interest of transparency. 

The battle of classified memos has further deepened the partisan divide on the House committee investigating Russian election meddling and possible connections between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.

Congress and the White House continue to wrangle over the release of the House Intelligence Committee’s controversial memo late Friday. Democrats want to get security clearance to release their side of the story.

Speaking to reporters by phone yesterday, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said neither memo should get in the way of the Special Counsel’s probe into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). File photo: Mark Kurtz
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). File photo: Mark Kurtz
"I think Robert Mueller has to finish his investigation," Gillibrand said. "He has to get to the bottom of it. The American people have the right to know whether the Russians intruded in our elections, whether there was any collusion, whether there’s been obstruction of justice, whether there’s been money laundering."

Congress is trying to avoid another government shutdown by passing a budget bill by Thursday. Wrapped up in those talks is immigration policy.

Dairy farmers in New York are desperate to get a path to legal status for a couple thousand Latino immigrants working in milk parlors in the North Country and statewide.

Gillibrand called the situation “an urgent crisis” but she says a solution is not likely anytime soon.

"What they’re looking at is, money for “the wall” in exchange for DACA kids. If they are going to do additional things, they want to limit immigration. They’re not talking about right-sizing immigration or doing comprehensive immigration, which is a shame," Gillibrand said.

Kirsten Gillibrand is New York’s junior Senator. She’s a Democrat whose name has been coming up lately as a possible presidential candidate in 2020.

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