House Democrats to investigate strange blocked number in Trump Jr'.s call record

[Borealis]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/27/russia-probe-house-democrats-aim-unmask-trump-jr-s-blocked-call/2119341002/

WASHINGTON – A blocked number in Donald Trump Jr.’s phone records may be among the first targets for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee in January as they
investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Rep. Adam Schiff, who is poised to lead the committee when Democrats take over the House majority, told USA TODAY his committee will have to prioritize the most important
witnesses and records that Republicans blocked them from pursuing. The “clearest example” of that obstruction, he said, is phone records that would show whether the blocked phone
number – logged as Trump Jr.  arranged a meeting in 2016 with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower – belonged to presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Trump’s son arranged the meeting in June 2016 after being promised “dirt” on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. At first, Trump Jr. said he never told his father of the meeting, then
he told Senate investigators he couldn't recall whom he spoke with that night.

Schiff said the committee, under GOP Rep. Devin Nunes' leadership, refused to seek records that would unmask the blocked call, leaving a major question unanswered. “Republicans
refused to look at the phone records so that we could find out because they were afraid of what the answer might be,” the California Democrat said.

Democrats will revisit witnesses Republicans wouldn’t call, records they wouldn’t obtain and witnesses that showed up but refused to answer questions without any legal basis for
doing so, Schiff said. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee ended their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in March, concluding there
was “no evidence of collusion” with the Trump campaign. Democrats continued their investigation, but they didn’t have the power to subpoena witnesses or records while in the
minority.

Come January, that will change. Schiff said Democrats will continue their work on the Russia investigation, looking for foreign influence in U.S. elections or on policymakers. He said
it’s important to examine whether Russians laundered money for the Trump organization and whether Russians have financial leverage over Trump.  

Other areas of focus for the committee will be the rise of authoritarianism around the world and Saudi Arabia’s role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Schiff said he’ll keep a close eye on any interactions between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin when they are in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the annual G-20 Summit.

[Geel]

I'm impressed with how much the Democrats are remembering to do.

So much has happened while they were completely powerless and I hope they've been keeping excellent logs of every little line of inquiry.

[Mr. Someguy]

I wish they had this level of determination when it came to the Panama Papers and other similar incidents.

[Sableye]

mueller already knows this.

[GeekOfWires]

"because they were afraid of what the answer might be."

I'm sorry? I got to listen to damn emails go nowhere (I was legitimately interested from an investigative point if there would be any progress, which were predictably inconclusive) but I'm certain some Democratic voters and legislators had some fears they might turn out sour. They endured though, and while I know this is Schiff's conjecture, if Republicans won't give anything solid as their logic for avoiding it (and no, because you think it's irrelevant isn't enough) then it should be enough to look in the general direction of the Republican Party as accessories to the matter (in my mind, but I know legally that's a huge loop to jump through).

I've said this before in a nicer way, but I'll put it down here in a more undesirable tone. The Republican Party is hemorrhaging its more moderate (and even some less moderate, more Bush era) Republican voters because of his stupid actions. If they want to stand a chance in the House in 2020, they better damn well put up some candidates swaying from Trumped up dip-wads that can capably say "we don't agree with this direction, we need to be better" or they can say goodbye to most of the voters that fit this picture. I know most of the party's supporters are no longer Republicans but Trump's own crowd, but this is moronic. Look at VA-07, it is undeniably a more conservative-voting district but he was so influential that Brat (and his own stupid actions) flipped the district. It won't stay, because it only edged out a win with a large amount of blue energy.

Start the damn investigations please. Get this guy out of office. Make the country look at this example of a buffoon and say "yep, that's a problem" and hope in twenty years the international community can only laugh off Trump as though it was a phase that which teenagers go through and we can all collect ourselves and move on.