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=bak 1219<a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/">https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/</a>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/richard-burr-stock-dumps/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/richard-burr-stock-dumps/</a>dumped all stocks but 1 1.2m$? called bro in law who did also, many of those stocks tanked<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><div><div>=</div><div>wapo: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-trump-russia-report/2020/08/18/62a7573e-e093-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-trump-russia-report/2020/08/18/62a7573e-e093-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html</a></div><div>
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</div><div>National Security</div><div>
</div><div>Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds</div><div>
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</div><div>By</div><div>Karoun Demirjian and </div><div>Ellen Nakashima</div><div>August 18, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow’s government and intelligence services.</div><div>
</div><div>In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern.</div><div>
</div><div>It found that a Russian attorney who met with Manafort, along with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in 2016, had “significant connections” to the Kremlin. The information she offered them was also “part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part with elements of the Russian government,” the report stated.</div><div>
</div><div>But the panel also concluded that the FBI’s handling of Russian threats to the election was “flawed” and that the bureau gave “unjustified credence” to allegations about Trump’s Russia ties made in a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, “based on an incomplete understanding of Steele’s past reporting record.”</div><div>
</div><div>Document: Read the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election]</div><div>
</div><div>The Senate Intelligence Committee’s three-and-a-half year investigation stands as Congress’s only bipartisan examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The panel, significantly, agreed that the FBI overestimated Steel’s reliability and that Manafort and other aides exposed the campaign to undue Russian influence. But its leaders were noticeably divided along party lines in how they interpreted the report’s significance, and several committee members — including its acting chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — endorsed dissenting conclusions about Trump’s own culpability.</div><div>
</div><div>The partisan divisions are a sign that the panel’s tome likely will not put to rest the political wrangling over how seriously to treat foreign interference in U.S. democracy as the country heads into its most divisive election in modern history.</div><div>
</div><div>“After more than three years of investigation by this Committee, we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion,” a group of six panel Republicans, including Rubio, wrote in a statement instead accusing the Democratic Party of coordinating with foreign actors to produce Steele’s dossier.</div><div>
</div><div>“In 2016, the Democratic Party, using a series of arm’s length transactions, hired a foreign citizen to seek out dirt on a political opponent, provided by foreign sources,” the Republicans wrote, attacking the FBI for “sloppy work and poor judgment.”</div><div>
</div><div>Five Democrat senators — including Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the party’s 2020 vice-presidential nominee — asserted the report “unambiguously shows that members of the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to get Trump elected.” Referring specifically to their findings on Manafort, the Democrats wrote, “This is what collusion looks like.”</div><div>
</div><div>The intelligence committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), who did not sign onto the Democrats’ dissenting views, noted “a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections,” and he encouraged “all Americans to carefully review the documented evidence of the unprecedented and massive intervention campaign waged on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump by Russians and their operatives and to reach their own independent conclusions.”</div><div>
</div><div>The committee’s past chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who oversaw the bulk of the investigation and also steered clear of the GOP’s dissent, struck a position in the middle.</div><div>
</div><div>“One of the Committee’s most important — and overlooked — findings is that much of Russia’s activities weren’t related to producing a specific electoral outcome, but attempted to undermine our faith in the democratic process itself,” he said in a statement. “Their aim is to sow chaos, discord, and distrust. Their efforts are not limited to elections. The threat is ongoing.”</div><div>
</div><div>Senate panel told Justice Dept. of suspicions over Trump family members’ Russia testimony</div><div>
</div><div>Burr and Warner launched the committee’s probe before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 and sustained the bipartisan investigation over the following three and a half years, even as other Congressional investigations into the same matter faltered along partisan lines. Since the Senate Intelligence Committee began its probe, former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III also released a 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election — and Trump was impeached and acquitted after Democrats accused him of coercing Ukrainian leaders to interfere in the 2020 election.</div><div>
</div><div>Though the committee’s probe covers much of the same turf as Mueller’s investigation, it was different in nature. Mueller was running a criminal probe; the Senate committee was conducting an intelligence investigation — a distinction that helps to explain some of nuanced differences between their conclusions.</div><div>
</div><div>The Senate panel’s probe, which was mostly driven by the committee’s bipartisan staff, included more than 200 witnesses and considered evidence relating to Russian disinformation, Trump’s personal, business and campaign contacts with Russians and the transition period following the 2016 election.</div><div>
</div><div>At one point, the document all but concludes that Trump aides were duped and manipulated by Russian interests they were too callow to understand.</div><div>
</div><div>“Russian officials, intelligence services, and others” acting in concert with the Kremlin “were capable of exploiting the transition team’s shortcomings,” the report concluded. “Based on the available information, it is possible — and even likely — that they did so.”</div><div>
</div><div>The report also presents a damning portrait of the Trump campaign’s hasty move in March 2016 to assemble a foreign policy team, asserting that it had recruited inexperienced people without thoroughly vetting them and thus potentially exposed itself to Russian influence.</div><div>
</div><div>“Ultimately,” the committee wrote, “the foreign policy team exposed the Trump Campaign to significant counterintelligence vulnerabilities.”</div><div>
</div><div>The committee pointed to Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who attempted to secure a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin through “highly suspicious” contacts with people close to the Russian government. Ultimately, investigators concluded, Papadopoulos “was not a witting co-optee of the Russian the Russian intelligence services. The panel also found that while Russia seemed to show an interest in campaign adviser Carter Page, investigators “found no indication that Page had useful Campaign information for the Russian intelligence services to extract, nor meaningful influence for them to exploit.”</div><div>
</div><div>The committee did find however that Putin personally directed the 2016 hack-and-leak campaign targeting the Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Clinton campaign. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks “actively sought and played a key role in the Russian campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort,” the report stated, surmising that a Russian military spy agency, known as the GRU, transferred hacked emails to WikiLeaks likely because it offered a more effective platform for publicity than the GRU’s own methods.</div><div>
</div><div>Yet investigators could not “reliably determine the extent of authentic, nonpublic knowledge” Trump’s friend Roger Stone had about WikiLeaks’s coming releases and shared with the campaign.</div><div>
</div><div>The panel noted that its investigation was hampered by several witnesses’ refusing interviews and to produce documents, citing Fifth Amendment rights that protect against self incrimination. These included Stone, Manafort and Rick Gates, the campaign’s deputy chair at that time. The panel’s request to interview Julian Assange was rebuffed.</div><div>
</div><div>The committee also outright accused Blackwater founder and Trump supporter Erik Prince of stonewalling its investigation, saying that it was “hampered by a lack of cooperation” and that his account of a controversial 2017 meeting in the Seychelles alongside a Russian official was “brief and deceptive.”</div><div>
</div><div>The committee previously released other volumes detailing aspects of its inquiry. Those reports focused on U.S. election security, Russia’s use of social media in disinformation campaigns, the Obama administration’s response to the perceived threat in 2016 and the intelligence community’s joint assessment that Russia had interfered in an attempt to tip the scales in Trump’s favor.</div><div>
</div><div>Yet the panel’s effort to maintain a bipartisan approach has not saved it from partisan scrutiny. Last year, the panel came under fire from Senate Republicans after issuing a subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. to come in for a second round of testimony.</div><div>
</div><div>After his testimony, Trump Jr. was one of several witnesses that the panel referred to the Justice Department for closer scrutiny over discrepancies between their testimony and that of Gates, the ex-deputy campaign chair who was a key witness in Mueller’s probe.</div><div>
</div><div>Earlier this year, Burr stepped aside as panel chairman after coming under scrutiny over stocks he sold in industries hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic. Rubio has been serving as acting chairman in his place.</div></div></div></div><div>=</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ref</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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National SecuritySenate panel told Justice Dept. of suspicions over Trump family members’ Russia testimonyDonald Trump Jr. departs Capitol Hill in June 2019 after meeting privately with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.]
ByKaroun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima and Matt ZapotoskyAugust 15, 2020 The Republican and Democratic chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee notified federal prosecutors last year of their suspicion that several individuals, including President Trump’s family members and confidants, might have presented misleading testimony in the panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said.
The list of individuals included the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose accounts of their pre-election meeting with a Russian lawyer were contradicted by the president’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates in interviews that were part of the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, these people said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss what remains a highly politicized and sensitive matter.
Inside the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting: A droning Russian lawyer and hot pink jeans, but no Clinton dirt]
But the intelligence committee, one person said, reserved its harshest allegations for the president’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis and private security contractor Erik Prince, saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators — a potential felony.The committee’s concerns were detailed in a formal letter sent to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., in June 2019, people familiar with the matter said. Existence of the letter was first reported by the Los Angeles Times late Friday night.The Senate Intelligence Committee referred several individuals’ testimony to the Justice Department over the course of its 3½ -year probe, citing discrepancies in their accounts, three officials said.The panel, which has prided itself on having pursued its investigation without the politically charged disruptions that have undermined similar probes undertaken by other congressional committees, already has issued reports affirming that the Russians worked to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election while bolstering Trump. It is expected to release the final volume of its findings as soon as next week.The committee’s referrals were signed by then-Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), officials said. Some letters went to Mueller, whose investigation focused not only on Russia’s activities in 2016 but also on whether anyone within the Trump campaign conspired with those efforts. Others went to the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office.It is unclear whether the Justice Department took action on the referrals. Officials there and with the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.A referral is a tip that Congress suspects a crime was committed but does not by itself spark an investigation, let alone a prosecution. Prosecutors generally view referrals from Congress with suspicion, often seeing them as partisan attempts to embarrass political opponents — although this referral was made with bipartisan agreement. Others fall short of alleging serious legal wrongdoing.Burr acknowledged in 2018 that the panel had made criminal referrals — and that “in a lot of those cases, those might be tied to lying to us.” At the time, he said the intelligence committee had interviewed more than 200 witnesses. His office declined to comment for this report.According to the Los Angeles Times, which viewed a copy of the referral letter, the committee told the Justice Department than Bannon may have lied about his interactions with Prince and others regarding a meeting Prince held in the Seychelles with an official close to President Vladimir Putin. Prince had told Mueller’s team that he briefed Bannon on the meeting, which occurred before Trump’s inauguration in early 2017; Bannon denied the conversation took place.Last year, shortly after a report was released detailing Mueller’s findings, the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Prince, accusing him of intentionally misleading the panel during its examination of the 2016 election. The Times article also notes that Clovis was referred for possibly lying about his contacts with a Republican operative spearheading an effort to obtain undisclosed emails from a personal computer server belonging to Clinton.William Burck, a lawyer for Bannon, declined to comment, saying “it’s impossible to respond to something I’ve never heard about before.”Victoria Toensing, a lawyer for Clovis, said: “You mean former Chairman Burr, who is under investigation for insider trading, also doesn’t know the legalities of a false statement? Mr. Clovis testified at length before the special counsel’s grand jury and was never charged. After his testimony, we never heard again from the special counsel.”The Justice Department has been investigating stock sales Burr made before the coronavirus pandemic crashed global markets, and in recent months seized his cellphone and executed a search warrant for his electronic communications. Burr stepped down as committee chairman amid the probe.Matthew L. Schwartz, a lawyer for Prince, noted that Prince had testified to the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017 and his testimony has been public for years. That committee made a criminal referral in April 2019. “It unsurprisingly went nowhere,” Schwartz said in a statement. “If members of the Senate likewise made a referral — which we don’t know anything about — there would be nothing new for the Department of Justice to consider, nor is there any reason to question the Special Counsel’s decision to credit Mr. Prince and rely on him in drafting its report.”Democrats examine Erik Prince’s statements on Seychelles meetingPrince, according to a person familiar with the matter, never testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, though he provided a copy of his House testimony to that panel.The letter sent to prosecutors last year was divided into two sections, according to two people familiar with its contents. The first named those suspected of making false statements: Bannon, Clovis and Prince.Its second section raised concerns about other witnesses whose testimony was contradicted by Gates, though it did not pointedly make a false-statements allegation, people familiar with the letter said. In addition to Trump Jr., that section of the letter also cited Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.Schiff says Donald Trump Jr. refused to answer some questionsRep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Donald Trump Jr. did not answer some questions in a closed hearing on Dec. 6, 2017. (The Washington Post)“We are fully confident in the testimony and information provided by Donald J. Trump, Jr.,” said Alan Futerfas, his lawyer. “In our view, this is a non-story.”Trump Jr. says he’s ‘not at all’ worried about perjury chargesA lawyer for Manafort declined to comment. A representative for Kushner did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hicks declined to comment immediately, citing a lack of familiarity with the referral.Trump Jr., Kushner, Hicks and Manafort all either took part in or were involved in strategizing how to speak to the media about a June 2016 meeting at Manhattan’s Trump Tower with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer promising damaging information about Clinton.Trump Jr., who first sat for a lengthy interview with the Intelligence Committee investigators in late 2017 and returned under subpoena to speak with the full panel in June 2019, told investigators that he never informed his father about the Trump Tower meeting. But Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told investigators working with Mueller that he recalled otherwise.Cohen told Mueller’s team of being present when Trump Jr. “told his father that a meeting to obtain adverse information about Clinton was going forward,” according to a report detailing the special counsel’s findings. Cohen said he did not remember whether the meeting was connected to Russia, Mueller’s report said. He was later sentenced to three years in prison for, among other crimes, lying to Congress.Gates, meanwhile, told Mueller’s team that he recalled that in the days before the Trump Tower meeting, Trump Jr. announced at a regular gathering of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about Clinton’s family foundation, according to the special counsel’s report. Among those present, Gates told Mueller, were Manafort, Hicks and Eric Trump, another of the president’s sons.Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.Karoun DemirjianKaroun Demirjian is a national security reporter covering Capitol Hill, where she focuses on defense, foreign affairs, intelligence and policy matters concerning the Justice Department. She was previously a correspondent based in The Post's bureau in Moscow. FollowEllen NakashimaEllen Nakashima is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering intelligence and national security matters for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 1995 and is based in Washington, D.C. FollowMatt ZapotoskyMatt Zapotosky covers the Justice Department for The Washington Post's national security team. He has previously worked covering the federal courthouse in Alexandria and local law enforcement in Prince George's County and Southern Maryland. FollowMore from The Post</div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/senate-panel-referred-trump-family-members-to-doj-over-suspicions-of-misleading-russia-testimony-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/senate-panel-referred-trump-family-members-to-doj-over-suspicions-of-misleading-russia-testimony-report/</a>wapoBipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee last year notified the Department of Justice that members of President Donald Trump’s family and close circle “might have presented misleading testimony” to the panel during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Washington Post reports.According to the Post, then-Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) referred a list of individuals, including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner to federal prosecutors after their accounts of a pre-election meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya “were contradicted by the president’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates” during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.In a separate section, the congressional panel said it had reason to believe Steve Bannon, Erik Prince and former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis “had lied to congressional investigators — a potential felony,” the Post reports.According to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the referrals and viewed a copy of the panel’s letter, the committee believes Bannon may have lied about his knowledge of a meeting Prince held in the Seychelles with a Russian official tied to the Kremlin. Per the Post, “Prince had told Mueller’s team that he briefed Bannon on the meeting, which occurred before Trump’s inauguration in early 2017; Bannon denied the conversation took place.”<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/putins-useful-idiot-this-gop-senator-is-promoting-a-russian-disinformation-campaign-to-help-get-trump-reelected">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/putins-useful-idiot-this-gop-senator-is-promoting-a-russian-disinformation-campaign-to-help-get-trump-reelected</a>Senator Ron Johnson is basically using his position as chair of the Homeland Security Committee to do what Trump was impeached for asking Ukraine to do—smear Joe Biden based on his efforts to end corruption in that country during his tenure as Obama’s vice president.Even Republican Senators Richard Burr and Marco Rubio are warning Johnson that his efforts could aid the disinformation campaign that Moscow is spearheading against Biden. As Ryan Goodman and Asha Rangappa document, Johnson seems to be getting his information from three sources.There are three channels of Russian disinformation that have apparently affected Sen. Johnson’s Ukraine-related investigations.Channel 1. Russian-linked Ukrainian operatives communicating directly with Sen. Johnson and his staff.Channel 2. Russian-linked Ukrainian operatives spreading disinformation via media outlets, which have been picked up and expressly relied upon by Sen. Johnson.Channel 3. Russian-linked Ukrainian operatives providing information via “Team [Rudy] Giuliani.”
That is bad enough. But then this week, Johnson actually said the quiet parts out loud.“The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden,” Johnson said in a little-noticed Tuesday interview with Minneapolis-based radio hosts Jon Justice and Drew Lee.In other words, the senator from Wisconsin is engaging in a Russian disinformation campaign, which he admits is designed to damage Biden and help Trump get reelected. Johnson is doing so four years after he joined Biden in demanding that Ukraine “press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor General’s office and judiciary.”All of that raises questions about whether Johnson is acting as a “useful idiot” on Vladimir Putin’s behalf. But it is important to keep in mind that the senator isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. After all, this is the guy who turned a joke from Lisa Page into a claim that he had an “informant” who said that there was a “secret society” of FBI agents meeting off site. The inference was that they were plotting to destroy the Trump presidency. He is also the senator who issued a report, wrote an op-ed, and held a hearing to make the unconscionable claim that Medicaid is responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic.For Johnson, there doesn’t seem to be an Alex Jones-type conspiracy theory that he won’t peddle. Most often, he jumps in and gets pilloried for failing to do an even basic review of facts. That’s why, whether he intends to or not, he is certainly playing the role of being Putin’s useful idiot.nancy let wa mo<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/doj-drops-insider-trading-probe-of-senators-as-another-republican-comes-under-scrutiny">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/doj-drops-insider-trading-probe-of-senators-as-another-republican-comes-under-scrutiny</a>
The Justice Department dropped investigations into <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/03/20/four-republican-senators-implicated-in-coronavirus-stock-scandal_partner/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">controversial stock trades</a> by three senators but appears to still be probing former Intelligence Committee chair <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/08/senate-intel-chair-richard-burr-sold-off-stock-in-dutch-company-right-before-2018-collapse_partner/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Richard Burr</a>, R-N.C. The news came as Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., drew scrutiny over trades he made before the stock market plunged in March.The DOJ informed Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., that it was closing investigations into stock trades they made as senators received private briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-closing-insider-trading-investigations-into-three-u-s-senators-11590520934?emailToken=806548280bd3ee2e627579085e05945503Xd/WnTRc0imRDoc5xCV2N5eg8XAvjzehRQ5Bv+WztPPQgosub0WsWE4x28Ob86ISfcWzTJRvaz3Iz2sNQbwT5Rcs" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Wall Street Journal</a> first reported. All three senators said that investment advisers had made the trades and they did not find out about them until later.But the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/03/30/department-of-justice-opens-inquiry-into-stock-trades-by-republican-sen-richard-burr-report/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">probe into trades made by Burr</a>, which were valued at up to $1.7 million, is still ongoing, according to the report. Unlike the other senators, Burr said he made the trades himself but did so based on publicly reported information, not information he got during private briefings. The FBI served Apple with a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/14/fbi-seizes-richard-burrs-phone-after-serving-apple-with-warrant-for-his-icloud-account-reports/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">warrant for Burr’s iCloud account and later seized his phone</a>, according to the Journal. Burr stepped aside as chairman of the Intelligence Committee pending the investigation. (Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is now the committee chair.)Loeffler’s trades, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/02/ethics-group-calls-for-gop-sen-kelly-loeffler-to-be-investigated-after-more-stock-sales-revealed/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">which were valued at up to $3.1 million</a>, drew the most scrutiny of the other senators after she was <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/21/kelly-loefflers-husband-donated-1-million-to-trump-pac-right-after-insider-trading-allegations/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">accused by Democrats of buying an appointment</a> to her Senate seat just months earlier. Loeffler’s husband, New York Stock Exchange chairman Jeff Sprecher, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/21/kelly-loefflers-husband-donated-1-million-to-trump-pac-right-after-insider-trading-allegations/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">donated $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC</a> after the trades were reported and the couple has since sold off all of their individual shares. Loeffler was appointed to the Senate by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after the resignation last year of Sen. Johnny Isakson, a decision that reportedly angered President Trump. She had been running neck-and-neck with Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., in the 2020 special election race to fill the remainder of Isakson’s term, but has since <a href="https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/georgia-senate-poll-ossoff-leads-dems-perdue-matchup-loeffler-trails-collins/JZDAnlkdgvOcMFHF5gILlN/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">slipped to fourth place</a> in the polls since the trading news broke.<div class="alt_ad_block true_ad_free story-page-in-content-graph-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_msg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 10px; background: rgb(234, 234, 234);"><div class="header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER</div></div></div>“Today’s clear exoneration by the Department of Justice affirms what Sen. Loeffler has said all along: She did nothing wrong,” a Loeffler spokesperson said in a statement to the Journal. “This was a politically motivated attack shamelessly promoted by the fake news media and her political opponent.”Inhofe similarly called the news an exoneration.“As I’ve said all along, I wasn’t even at the briefing and do not make my own stock trades,” he told <a href="https://oklahoman.com/article/5663204/inhofe-says-justice-department-has-cleared-him-in-stock-sale-inquiry" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Oklahoman</a>. “I did nothing wrong, and I’m pleased the Justice Department has exonerated me.”Feinstein has not commented on the matter.But as the three senators escaped potential legal ramifications, Roe came under scrutiny on Tuesday after <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/26/coronavirus-pandemic-threatened-tennessee-rep-snatched-up-zoom-shares-unloaded-cruise-stock/5261355002/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Tennessean</a> reported that he made hundreds of transactions before the stock market collapse in March.Roe, who announced earlier this year that he will not seek re-election, is the top Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and serves on the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions subcommittee.The newspaper’s analysis of Roe’s financial records found that he bought stock in the teleconferencing company Zoom and the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/18/trumps-new-coronavirus-vaccine-czar-owns-10-million-in-stock-options-in-company-developing-vaccine/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">pharmaceutical firm Moderna</a>, which is working on a leading coronavirus vaccine candidate. Both companies have seen big boosts in share values since the outbreak. Roe also sold off shares in Royal Caribbean Cruise and Disney, companies that shut down nearly all operations just days after the trades.Roe sold of shares in nearly 100 companies in total before the market plunged. He made a total of 680 transactions in the first quarter of the year, involving more than 300 assets valued at up to $18.4 million.Roe, a physician and the co-chair of the House GOP Doctors Caucus, wrote about the coronavirus on his official website <a href="https://roe.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400717" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as early as Feb. 26</a>. He said in a <a href="https://soundcloud.com/family-research-council/dr-phil-roe-on-the-risk-posed-by-the-new-chinese-coronavirus" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">February interview</a> that he participated in a House briefing on the virus weeks earlier. In early March, he wrote about the administration’s response.“I know how unsettling the spread of an unknown virus is, but I can tell you with confidence, based on information I’ve received from first-hand conversations and briefings, our government is laser-focused on ensuring the health of all Americans,” <a href="https://roe.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400720" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">he wrote</a>.Two days later, he began to sell large numbers of stocks.Roe spokesman Kyle Jacobs told The Tennessean that the congressman did not make the trades himself.“Congressman Roe does not manage his personal stock investments and uses a third party investment manager to handle personal stock purchases and sales,” he said.But the volume of trades raised questions from the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group.“There is nothing in the public record yet to suggest Roe had non-public material information when he made (those trades),” Kedric Payne, the group’s legal counsel, told the outlet. “But you just never know what’s going to come to light.”Roe’s trades prevented him from losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in March, if not millions, according to the analysis.“He seems to be a savvy investor based on the frequency with which he trades and his overall portfolio,” Payne said, adding, “He did start making trades earlier than the general public.”420<h2 style="" tiempos="Tiempos" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://go.propublica.org/e/125411/l-utm-campaign-dailynewsletter/79tc1z/519580245?h=fBDZfefRq5_Al2MVweD7fHRDWEjKB71o1sySDywg4ms" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Burr Sold D.C. Townhouse to Donor at a Rich Price</a></h2><p style="line-height: 1.375;" tiempos="Tiempos" text="Text" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" verdana="Verdana" sans-serif="sans-serif" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" px="px" margin-top="margin-top" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In a private transaction, Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, sold the townhouse to lobbyists who had business before his committeethe end at last?
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson goes off on GOP senator caught dumping stocks — says he must explain or resign
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/fox-news-tucker-carlson-goes-off-on-gop-senator-caught-dumping-stocks-says-he-must-explain-or-resign/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/fox-news-tucker-carlson-goes-off-on-gop-senator-caught-dumping-stocks-says-he-must-explain-or-resign/</a><div>
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/former-cia-officer-putins-long-game-is-to-destroy-western-democracies-and-the-gop-is-helping-him/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/former-cia-officer-putins-long-game-is-to-destroy-western-democracies-and-the-gop-is-helping-him/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Former CIA officer: Putin’s ‘long game’ is to ‘destroy western democracies’ — and the GOP is helping him</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Alex Henderson December 10, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">As articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump move forward in the U.S. House of Representatives, pro-Trump Republicans continue to insist that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election — a claim that foreign affairs expert Fiona Hill described as total nonsense during her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last month. Regardless, Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina recently told an NBC News reporter that in 2016, “Every elected official in the Ukraine was for Hillary Clinton. Is that very different than the Russians being for Donald Trump?” And former CIA officer Alex Finley, in a December 10 article for Just Security, explains why Burr’s assertion is a “false equivalence” that “completely and dangerously mischaracterizes the threat we are facing” from Russian President Vladimir Putin....</div></div>standup guy:Republican senators are rallying around Donald Trump Jr. after one of their colleagues issued him a subpoena — and he plans to fight it tooth and nail.<div class="p1_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">President Donald Trump’s son doesn’t intend to show up to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee about apparent falsehoods in his previous congressional testimony, which would then set off a constitutional showdown, <a href="https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-jr-senate-intelligence-subpoena-response-ac2b371c-0c00-4e36-ae1e-2f690954102f.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reported Axios Defying the subpoena would essentially dare Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the committee’s chairman who issued the order, to hold the president’s eldest son in contempt, but Trump Jr. could also plead the Fifth Amendment in writing or, most likely, reach a compromise to answer the panel’s questions in writing.</a>
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div>One day after the midterm elections in which the Republicans lost the House majority, President Trump once again sought to flip the script by firing his longtime nemesis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He announced the dismissal in an especially sour press conference, during which he berated all the losing Republicans for failing to tether themselves close enough to him, which he of course insisted sealed their defeat. but firing Sessions didn’t lift Trump’s spirits as much as he might have hoped. He was reported to be depressed and upset because of the rumors that were flying all over town that his number one son, Donald Trump Jr., was about to be indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/post-midterms-trump-is-in-a-bad-mood" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/post-midterms-trump-is-in-a-bad-mood&source=gmail&ust=1557579234533000&usg=AFQjCNGs8CBFFXoznQRLhUjnnho8L11yNw" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Vanity Fair reported:</a><div class="p3_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;">In recent days, according to three sources, Don Jr. has been telling friends he is worried about being indicted as early as this week. One person close to Don Jr. speculated that Mueller could indict him for making false statements to Congress and the F.B.I. about whether he had told his father about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians to gather “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.<div class="p4_17" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote>It was already well known by this time that Junior had lied to the congressional committees, <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Trump%20Jr%20Transcript_redacted.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Trump%2520Jr%2520Transcript_redacted.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1557579234533000&usg=AFQjCNHulIUnnFtYtn7oXdYwuaD-03-2XQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">soft-pedaling </a>his knowledge of the Trump Tower project and failing to divulge the information that he’d <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democratic-senator-says-don-jr-may-have-lied-congressional-testimony-n877531" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democratic-senator-says-don-jr-may-have-lied-congressional-testimony-n877531&source=gmail&ust=1557579234533000&usg=AFQjCNEqBWZ2InfX868Y8KuZe9LSCCcISw" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">met with other emissaries </a>of foreign countries about possibly help for the Trump campaign. So the notion that he was in Mueller’s crosshairs as well wasn’t exactly a surprise.<div class="p5_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mueller never indicted Junior, obviously. But despite Trump and his allies’ insistence that the special counsel’s report “cleared” him, it’s not true. Mueller never interviewed Don Jr., and redactions in the report point strongly to the likely scenario that he was subpoenaed by the grand jury and took the Fifth. The general <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/mueller-report-confirms-don-jr-too-stupid-to-collude-with-russia" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/mueller-report-confirms-don-jr-too-stupid-to-collude-with-russia&source=gmail&ust=1557579234533000&usg=AFQjCNHcplu6RzFg7ajMZfe8o0V5P-O0aw" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">consensus</a> is that Mueller concluded that Junior’s collusion was so dumb that he couldn’t possibly have been involved in a criminal conspiracy.But Mueller isn’t the only game in town. As it turns out, the Senate Intelligence Committee still wanted Don Jr. to come back and testify again before the senators. (He’d previously only spoken to the staff.) They asked him nicely but unlike all the others who’d testified under the same agreement, including his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, Don Jr. apparently refused. So sometime between a month ago and a week ago (news reports differ on the timing) the committee issued a subpoena. When <a href="https://www.axios.com/senate-intelligence-committee-donald-trump-jr-subpoena-russia-9c9ed1e6-63e4-4796-91c4-a20082e991d2.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.axios.com/senate-intelligence-committee-donald-trump-jr-subpoena-russia-9c9ed1e6-63e4-4796-91c4-a20082e991d2.html?utm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwsocialshare%26utm_campaign%3Dorganic&source=gmail&ust=1557579234533000&usg=AFQjCNHZ6Uo6TImcEEwO7kU_DHptrcXPPw" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the news leaked</a> on Wednesday, Trump Jr. and his allies completely lost their minds.<div class="p7_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This hysterical statement was issued to the news media:<div class="p8_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The “so-called ‘Republican’ Senator” described as “cowardly” would be Richard Burr of North Carolina, chair of the Intelligence Committee. That leak happened on the day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had declared “case closed,” which is probably not a coincidence. Someone on the committee likely thought it might be useful to have it out there that the only truly bipartisan Russia investigation on Capitol Hill was still in operation, making it clear that McConnell’s words were only rhetorical.<div class="p9_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Trump’s allies raced to Junior’s rescue, particularly those who are facing re-election in 2020, reportedly after being reminded that they might not want to anger the president and cause him to endorse a primary opponent against them. Following the intemperate words of that “source” close to Trump Jr. calling Burr a coward, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision-to-subpoena-donald-trump-jr-sets-off-a-republican-firefight/2019/05/09/cb3e8d3e-7272-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?utm_term=.64b2a8556249" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision-to-subpoena-donald-trump-jr-sets-off-a-republican-firefight/2019/05/09/cb3e8d3e-7272-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?utm_term%3D.64b2a8556249&source=gmail&ust=1557579234534000&usg=AFQjCNGK4WoHG9YQmWZRkQCcc0IRTx-kyQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">other Republicans</a> came forward to condemn their colleague — a highly unusual occurrence, especially within the GOP — and call for the committee investigation to be shut down.<div class="p10_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It was quite a temper tantrum, joined by the president himself:<div class="p11_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It’s clear that Trump is only aware of the sunny Mueller Report Cliff Notes he sees on Fox News, so he probably unaware that Burr also acted as a back channel during the investigation, speaking to former White House counsel Don McGahn about whom the committee had interviewed. But Trump mentioned that Burr had said publicly that his committee had found no evidence of collusion and seemed confused since he had obviously considered Burr to be among his loyal henchmen.<div class="p12_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Burr is a strange figure in all this. He has gone out of his way to avoid appearing publicly with Trump, supposedly to avoid the appearance of a conflict even as he shared info with the White House and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.8c63147f3823" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term%3D.8c63147f3823&source=gmail&ust=1557579234534000&usg=AFQjCNFW4udD4mKE04fwwgUa6LIfMqL3GQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">intervened </a>with the press on Trump’s behalf. He has managed to work congenially with Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s ranking Democrat, and by all accounts the committee investigation itself has not been compromised.<div class="p13_17" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Why Burr has decided to subpoena the president’s son, if it’s simply a mopping-up exercise, as other Republicans on the committee have implied, remains mysterious. Some people assume it’s because Burr believes that lying to his committee under oath is wrong no matter what, and he wants to preserve the integrity of the process. Others think it’s because this is his last term in the Senate and he’s decided to take a stand. (Burr has said he will not run for re-election in 2022.)<div class="p14_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It’s tempting to believe that. Burr’s back-channel activities with the White House are reminiscent of Sen. Howard Baker of Watergate fame, the Tennessee Republican known for his repeated question, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” It was later learned that Baker had secretly provided the Nixon White House with information about the Watergate committee’s investigation; his question was designed to protect Richard Nixon, under the assumption that Nixon hadn’t known anything about the criminal cover-up. When it could no longer be denied that Nixon knew everything, Baker changed sides and sealed his reputation as a man of integrity, even though the truth was much murkier than that.<div class="p15_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There have been so many of these possible parallels between Republicans of the Watergate era and today, and none of them have panned out. I’m no longer willing to extend the possibility. That species of Republicans who are willing to do the right thing, however reluctantly, has gone extinct. I don’t know why Burr has gone that extra mile, but I doubt that he intends to nail Donald Trump Jr. with a perjury rap or to expose the president’s collusion with Russia. It may just be that Burr thought Don Jr. would end up complying and they could have a nice little sit-down to clear the air.  In any case, the likelihood of the Republican Senate sending a criminal referral to William Barr for Don Jr.’s lies under oath are about the same as the chances President Trump will join the Space Force for its first trip to the moon.<div class="p16_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This would all have probably blown over if the Trump administration, and Trump’s entire family as well, hadn’t decided to stonewall all congressional requests, no matter what they are, in order to put on a show for the base and run out the clock on the myriad of outstanding legal issues. But Don Jr., not being the sharpest fellow of all time, didn’t realize that stonewalling the Senate won’t really work — since the Senate is run by Republicans, after all — and he ended up causing a huge mess inside Trump’s own party. He’s a real chip off the old block Senate intelligence committee has asked the <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/national-rifle-association">National Rifle Association</a> to provide documents on its connections to Russia—including documents related to a 2015 trip some of its top leaders made to Moscow. That’s according to two sources briefed on the committee’s activities.The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespersons for Sen. Richard Burr, the intelligence committee chair, and Sen. Mark Warner, the panel’s ranking member, declined to comment on the record.The NRA’s Russia connections have drawn growing public scrutiny after a key figure in Russian outreach to the powerful gun lobby, Maria Butina, was indicted in July on charges of being an undeclared Russian operative <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/maria-butina-who-infiltrated-nra-and-gop-has-ties-to-russian-intelligence-prosecutors-say">connected to the country’s intelligence apparatus</a>. Butina sought to use guns as a lever to tilt the Republican Party in a pro-Kremlin direction, creating a political firestorm for the NRA in the wake of her arrest. The intelligence committee’s document request is just one part of the aftermath.<a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns">Butina</a>, whose Russian political patron Alexander Torshin is a senior figure in the country’s powerful central bank, ran a Russian gun-rights organization called the Right to Bear Arms. In December 2015, the group sponsored an NRA delegation to come to Moscow for a week. NRA dignitaries <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-trump-ally-met-with-putins-deputy-in-moscow">also met</a> with another influential Russian, the former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin. Torshin subsequently came under <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/nras-man-in-moscow-hit-by-new-us-sanctions">U.S. sanctions</a>; Rogozin had been under sanctions since 2014.<section class="Fancylinks"><ul class="Fancylinkslist"><li class="FancylinksItem"><div class="FancylinksItemcontainer"><div class="FancylinksItemleft"><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><div class="FancylinksItemtop-left"><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns"></a><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns"></a><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns" /><div class="FancylinksItemrubric"><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns"></a><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns"></a><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns"></a><a class="TrackingLink FancylinksItemlink" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns">Товарищ</a></div><h3 class="FancylinksItemheadline">Kremlin & GOP Bigwigs Have a New Friend</h3></div><div class="FancylinksItembottom-left"><div class="FancylinksItemauthor"><div class="Byline Byline--horizontal Byline--small"><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><h4 class="Bylineauthor-name"><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak"></a><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak" /><a class="TrackingLink Bylineauthor" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/tim-mak">Tim Mak</a></h4></div></div></div></div><div class="FancylinksItemright">
</div></div></li></ul></section>Former NRA President David Keene and soon-to-be president Peter Brownell were both on the trip. Accompanying them were Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, NRA donors Jim Gregory and Arnold and Hilary Goldschlager, and Jim Liberatore, the president and CEO of the Outdoor Channel.The intelligence committee isn’t the only Senate panel interested in the trip. The Senate Finance Committee has for months sought NRA documents about the controversial excursion.Earlier this year, the NRA faced persistent questioning from the Finance Committee over the trip and whether it received money from Russia. The NRA, in a series of letters to the committee, initially denied receiving money from Russia. But in an April 10 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, its general counsel John Frazer acknowledged receiving “a total of approximately $2512.85 from people associated Russian addresses” and “about $525” from two Russian nationals living in the United States. It also acknowledged “membership dues” from Torshin, a non-voting life member of the NRA since 2012.“[G]iven the extraordinarily time-consuming and burdensome nature of your requests, we must respectfully decline to engage in this beyond the clear answers we have already provided,” Frazer wrote in April, three months before Butina’s arrest.The heightened congressional scrutiny of the NRA comes as one of its former top attorneys, William Brewer III, has faced legal challenges of his own.In September, federal Judge Liam O’Grady chastised the Texas attorney for failing to disclose that a judge in Texas had sanctioned him for more than $133,000 for using an unethical polling practice to influence a jury pool. Brewer challenged that judge’s move, and an appellate court upheld the penalty. The appellate court’s ruling noted that the judge who first sanctioned Brewer found his attitude in that process to be “dismissive and uncaring.”When Brewer appeared before a Virginia federal court to represent the NRA—in litigation over its “Carry Guard” insurance program for gun owners who shoot people—he asserted that he had not “been reprimanded in any court.” When the judge learned about his prior sanction, he yanked him off the case, <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2018/09/13/dallas-attorney-kicked-off-nra-case-for-failure-to-disclose-177k-sanction/?slreturn=20181002155203">as Texas Lawyer detailed</a>.Brewer has said he didn’t commission the poll, according to Texas Lawyer, and that he neglected to reveal the sanction to O’Grady because he was appealing it to Texas’s highest state court. His firm still represents the NRA.<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/gop-gang-of-eight-senator-leaked-all-five-major-trump-linked-targets-of-mueller-probe-to-the-white-house-after-fbi-briefing">https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/gop-gang-of-eight-senator-leaked-all-five-major-trump-linked-targets-of-mueller-probe-to-the-white-house-after-fbi-briefing</a>https://www.alternet.org/senate-intel-committee-splits-nunes-led-house-panel-agrees-putin-interfered-2016-help-trump
Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday split from their colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, agreeing with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.
The announcement of the completed review of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian activities in the 2016 U.S. elections was announced in a press release from committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) on Wednesday.
“We so no reason to dispute the [IC] conclusions,” Burr said. “There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with out 2016 elections.


Committee vice chairman Mark Warner (D-CA) agreed the ICA conclusions “were accurate and on point,” adding Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the interference himself “for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
The Senate intel committee’s conclusions are markedly different than those reached by the House Intelligence Committee, led by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). In a 250-page report, House Republicans said they came to "concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment's judgments, except with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump.”
Senate Intel Cmte Chair @SenatorBurr: “Committee staff have spent 14 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft, and analytic work (of the ICA findings on Russian meddling in #2016), and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions.”epa swamp things
Dourson is also facing problems in another red state struggling with chemical contamination: North Carolina. While both Republican senators from the state voted for Pruitt and Wehrum, <a href="https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/north-carolina-senators-decline-to-back-epa-nominee-dourson" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">neither</a> has committed to Dourson. The state is home to Camp Lejeune, the military base where TCE and other carcinogenic chemicals seeped into drinking water, leading to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/health/cancer-can-be-tough-case-to-prove.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cluster of cancer cases</a>. As retired Marine Jerry Ensminger <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article181973661.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">pointed out</a> in the Raleigh News and Observer, Dourson’s evaluation of TCE, which was paid for by the American Chemistry Council, calculated a safety level that was less protective than the one set by the EPA. Ensminger, whose daughter died of leukemia at Camp Lejeune, has called on his senators to oppose Dourson, whom he calls a “walking, talking example of conflict of interest.”North Carolina is also <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/17/new-teflon-toxin-found-in-north-carolina-drinking-water/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">ground zero</a> for <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/03/03/new-teflon-toxin-causes-cancer-in-lab-animals/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">GenX</a>, the latest in a family of chemicals known as PFAS to be found in drinking water. DuPont and its spinoff, Chemours, have dumped at least 1 million pounds of PFAS into North Carolina’s Cape Fear River since 1980. GenX and other PFAS are unregulated, which is limiting the state’s ability to clean it up.While he has stayed mum about whether he will vote for Dourson, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr wrote to Pruitt on October 31, asking him to consider evaluating GenX and the entire class of chemicals to which it belongs, a step that could lead to regulation. <a href="https://insideepa.com/daily-news/hedging-toxics-nominee-burr-urges-pruitt-address-pfc-concerns" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Some</a> have suggested that Burr’s support for Dourson may be contingent on whether the EPA promises to help address his state’s water contamination problem. Burr’s office did not respond to inquiries for this story.In addition to these possible defectors, Maine Sen. Susan Collins is also expected to break with the Republican ranks to oppose Dourson. Collins was the only Republican senator to vote against both Pruitt and Wehrum.“Susan has been heroic in so many ways,” said Delaware’s Sen. Tom Carper, who has been leading the charge against Dourson in the Senate.Because Dourson has worked on behalf of industry to defend dozens of chemicals that have contaminated the water and air of Republicans, as well as Democrats, Carper hopes that some of Collins’s colleagues will join her this time....<div>Burr pulls report:</div><div>
</div><div><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/02/senate-torture-report-recall-justice-department-239077">http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/02/senate-torture-report-recall-justice-department-239077</a></div><div>
</div><div><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px;">The Justice Department’s copy of the famed “torture report” from the Senate Intelligence Committee, which extensively detailed the CIA’s Bush-era detention and interrogation tactics, doesn’t appear to be returning to the Senate anytime soon.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px;">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chaired the Intelligence Committee when the panel produced the report in 2014, said Friday that she has confirmed the CIA, its inspector general and the director of national intelligence have returned their copies of the torture report to the Senate. Her successor as the Intelligence chair, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), had asked the administration to return its copies to the Senate, where it could be blocked indefinitely from public view because Congress exempted itself from open records laws.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px;">...</div><div>
</div><div>=</div>=http://www.ecowatch.com/voter-guide-climate-change-2012756804.html...Beyond the presidential race, there are profound choices to make up-and-down the ballot between climate disasters and climate champions, and voters deserve to know the difference there too.
Take North Carolina, for example. Republican Sen. Richard Burr is another <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/top-climate-denier-turns-down-20k-bet-from-bill-nye-1891083348.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate denier</a>, claiming falsely that he doesn't "think science can prove" climate change.Burr, we have a few hundred scientific studies you should take a look. Or you could just <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">refer to NASA</a>, which the Republican Party went out of their way to celebrate at their most recent convention. Frankly, it's no surprise that a denier like Burr also has no interest in a landmark policy like the Clean Power Plan—the EPA's first ever effort to cut carbon pollution from power plants while growing our clean energy economy.On the other hand, Burr's opponent Deborah Ross strongly supported legislation that spurred the growth of clean energy jobs in North Carolina, while opposing environmentally harmful fracking. She's supported policies to protect clean air and clean water while opposing tax breaks for polluters. So it's clear all around that right now Congress desperately needs more climate and environmental champions like Deborah Ross in the Senate, and fewer climate deniers like Richard Burr.The same story repeats itself in top Senate races in the country, where climate champions like Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Jason Kander (D-Mo.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) face climate disasters like Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Darryl Glenn (R-Colo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)....
 = new poll out of North Carolina yesterday shows Senator Richard Burr up by two points over climate champion Deborah Ross, just after Karl Rove moved $2.5 million into the race.  On top of that, Koch brothers group Freedom Partners Action Fund is pumping an additional million into Ohio to attack Ted Strickland for supporting a clean energy future.  Ross, Strickland, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Katie McGinty are in four of the tightest races in the country — these four races will really make or break our chances to win back a pro-environment Senate. Without your support, these champions can’t counter the flood of dirty money being thrown against them right now. =
Richard Burr Introduces Bill To Abolish The EPAPosted by Brad Johnson on Friday, May 06, 2011Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department.In January, Newt Gingrich proposed abolishing the EPA, and several House Republicans have supported that goal. Burr’s statement announcing his bill to eliminate the EPA argues that “duplicative functions” can be eliminated:U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach. Burr’s bill has fifteen co-sponsors, all of them deniers of the threat of global warming pollution, a top EPA priority: Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Mike Lee (R-Utah)going for #2 job <a href="http://dailyhaymaker.com/?p=2657">http://dailyhaymaker.com/?p=2657</a> ellmers brags: WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers has taken over as North Carolina's most conservative House member, according to the National Journal's annual analysis of congressional votes. The freshman Republican from Dunn, who ran as a favorite of tea-party backers, was ranked 15th most conservative in the House. She beat out U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Cherryville Republican, and Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Banner Elk Republican, on the conservative ranking. McHenry ranked 20th; Foxx, 62nd.U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat, was named the most liberal House member of the North Carolina delegation, followed by U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat. Watt ranked 50th on the House liberal rankings; Price was at 112.Among U.S. senators, Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, was ranked seventh most conservative. U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, was ranked the 32nd most liberal. The ratings are based on 97 Senate votes and 105 House votes during 2011.The analysis also reflected how polarized Congress is today."For the second year in a row, but only the third time in the 30 years that National Journal has published these ratings, no Senate Democrat compiled a voting record to the right of any Senate Republican, and no Republican came down on the left of any Senate Democrat," the magazine reports.=<h2 class="title"><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-watch-focus-rogues-gallery">Right Wing Watch In Focus: "Rogues' Gallery"</a></h2><div class="submitted">Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:39am</div><div class="content">Today, People For the American Way released out latest Right Wing Watch In Focus report examining the slate of extremist GOP Senate candidates running for office this year. Entitled "<a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/the-rogues-gallery-right-wing-candidates-have-dangerous-agenda-for-america-and-could-tu">The Rogues' Gallery: Right-Wing Candidates Have A Dangerous Agenda for America and Could Turn the Senate</a>," the report examines the radical agendas and views held by Joe Miller, Carly Fiorina, Ken Buck, Christine O'Donnell, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Roy Blunt, Sharron Angle, Kelly Ayotte, Richard Burr, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and Dino Rossi, plus the role that Sen. Jim DeMint has played in dragging the GOP further and further to the right.</div> =<h2 class="title"><a href="http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2011/05/06/richard-burr-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-epa">Richard Burr Introduces Bill To Abolish The EPA</a></h2>Posted by <cite>Brad Johnson</cite> <abbr class="published" title="2011-05-06T15:46:00-04:00">on Friday, May 06, 2011</abbr><div class="content">Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department. In January, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/25/newt-epa-abolish/">Newt Gingrich</a> proposed abolishing the EPA, and several <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/17/gop-abolish-epa/">House Republicans</a> have supported that goal. Burr’s statement announcing his <a href="http://burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c1ba1805-d36e-05b2-1312-7c07e24fa340">bill to eliminate the EPA</a> argues that “duplicative functions” can be eliminated:<blockquote>U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach.</blockquote>Burr’s bill has fifteen co-sponsors, all of them <a href="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/climate-zombie-caucus/">deniers</a> of the threat of global warming pollution, a top EPA priority: Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Mike Lee (R-Utah)</div> <a href="http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2011/05/06/richard-burr-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-epa">http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2011/05/06/richard-burr-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-epa</a> = Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.
"I have no clue [how much of climate change is attributable to human activity], and I don't think that science can prove it.... I certainly haven't seen anything that's conclusive, and anything that's claimed to be conclusive has proven to be somewhat sketchy." --- <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-02-richard-burr-objectionable-and-vulnerable/">http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-02-richard-burr-objectionable-and-vulnerable/</a> ---- Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, established 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon to give Americans clean air and water. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department. In January, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/25/newt-epa-abolish/">Newt Gingrich</a> proposed abolishing the EPA, and several <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/17/gop-abolish-epa/">House Republicans</a> have supported that goal, while making numerous attempts to hamstring limits on industrial polluters. Burr's statement announcing his <a href="http://burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c1ba1805-d36e-05b2-1312-7c07e24fa340">bill to eliminate the EPA</a> argues that "duplicative functions" can be eliminated, even though the two departments are completely different:<blockquote>Burr introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach. </blockquote>Burr's bill has 15 cosponsors, all of them <a href="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/climate-zombie-caucus/">global warming deniers</a>: Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ariz.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah). <a href="http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-05-06-richard-burr-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-epa">http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-05-06-richard-burr-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-epa</a>  sw Richard Mauze Burr a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_Party_U.S.A." title="Republican Party U.S.A." class="mw-redirect">Republican</a>, has represented the state of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Members_of_the_U.S.Congress_from_North_Carolina" title="Category:Members of the U.S. Congress from North Carolina">North Carolina</a> in the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S.Senate" title="U.S. Senate">Senate</a> since 2004. (<a href="http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/pagecgd109_nc2.gif" class="external text" title="http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/pagecgd109_nc2.gif" rel="nofollow">map</a>)<table id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents"><tbody><tr><td><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2>[<a class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</div><ul><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Record_and_controversies">1 Record and controversies</a><ul><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Tobacco">1.1 Tobacco</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Iraq_War">1.2 Iraq War</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Environmental_record">1.3 Environmental record</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#National_Uniformity_for_Food_Act">1.4 National Uniformity for Food Act</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Bio">2 Bio</a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Money_in_politics">3 Money in politics</a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Committees_and_Affiliations">4 Committees and Affiliations</a><ul><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Committees">4.1 Committees</a><ul><li class="toclevel-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Committee_assignments_in_the_109th_Congress.282005-2006.29">4.1.1 Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)</a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#More_Background_Data">5 More Background Data</a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Contact">6 Contact</a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Articles_and_Resources">7 Articles and Resources</a><ul><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#References">7.1 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#External_resources">7.2 External resources</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#External_articles">7.3 External articles</a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#Local_blogs_and_discussion_sites">7.4 Local blogs and discussion sites</a></li></ul></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table> <h2>Record and controversies</h2><div style="background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll rgb(220, 232, 248); margin: 0.5em 0.75em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid rgb(92, 121, 181); padding: 0.25em;">General information about important bills and votes for can be found in Congresspedia's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:U.S.legislation" title="Category:U.S. legislation">articles on legislation</a>. You can add information you find on how Richard Burr voted by clicking the "[edit]" link to the right and typing it in. Remember to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Help:References" title="Help:References">cite your sources</a>!</div><a name="Tobacco" id="Tobacco"> </a><h3>Tobacco</h3>The Winston-Salem Journal reported on March 23, 2009 that Congressman Burr had received $355,000 from tobacco interests since 1995 (second only to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mitch_McConnell" title="Mitch McConnell">Mitch McConnell</a>) and in 2009 he co-sponsored legislation that would ban tobacco advertising in magazines and newspapers and prohibit certain words from being used to describe tobacco products in hopes that he could persuade members of Congress to not pass a different bill that would be even tougher on the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tobacco_industry" title="Tobacco industry">tobacco industry</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a><a name="Iraq_War" id="Iraq_War"> </a><h3>Iraq War</h3>Burr voted for the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Iraq_Resolution_of_2002" title="Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002">Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002</a> that started the Iraq War.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Burr#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a><div style="background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll rgb(220, 232, 248); margin: 0.5em 0.75em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid rgb(92, 121, 181); padding: 0.25em;">For more information see the chart of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S.House_of_Representatives_votes_on_the_Iraq_War" title="U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War">U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War</a>.</div><a name="Environmental_record" id="Environmental_record"> </a><h3>Environmental record</h3>For more information on environmental legislation, see the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:Energy_and_Environment_Policy%28U.S.%29" title="Portal:Energy and Environment Policy (U.S.)">Energy and Environment Policy Portal</a><a name="National_Uniformity_for_Food_Act" id="National_Uniformity_for_Food_Act"> </a><h3>National Uniformity for Food Act</h3>During the 108th Congress, at the time a Representative in the House, Burr introduced the National Uniformity for Food Act (H.R.2699). Specifically, the bill declared that no state or local government would be permitted to require a warning relating to food, including any component or package of the food, unless the specific warning had been required by the FDA and the state warning was identical to the FDA warning. This requirement of national uniformity in food warnings would apply to the food label, advertising, posters, public notices, and other forms of communication. The bill did not receive consideration on the House floor.After becoming a Senator, Burr introduced the legislation again, this time in the Senate, on May 25, 2006, during the 109th Congress. It was referred to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Health,Education,Labor,and_Pensions" title="Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions">Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions</a>, of which Burr was a member. A hearing was held on July 27, 2006, but no action was taken on the bill.<dl><dd>Main article: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Uniformity_for_Food_Act" title="National Uniformity for Food Act">National Uniformity for Food Act</a></dd></dl><a name="Bio" id="Bio"> </a><h2>Bio</h2>Burr was born November 30, 1955 and was educated at Wake Forest University (B.A. 1978). He was a businessman in Winston-Salem prior to his political career.Burr represented North Carolina's 5th Congressional the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S.House_of_Representatives" title="U. S. House of Representatives" class="mw-redirect">U. S. House of Representatives</a> for five terms. He was first elected to Congress in 1994 as part of the "Gingrich Revolution", promising term limits.Burr has strong ties to the North Carolina Piedmont Triad Research Park, involving bio-hazard and chemical, vaccines research.He took large contributions from several chemical-oil companies including MTBE-Conoco in 1997, then sponsored a bill to offer liability protection. The company was found guilty in 1997 of tainting groundwater in the state.[<a href="http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/burr_mtbe.pdf" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/burr_mtbe.pdf" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>]In July 2004, Burr won the Republican primary to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Edwards" title="John Edwards">John Edwards</a>. He faced Democrat Erskine Bowles and Libertarian Tom Bailey. Burr won the election by five percentage points.Burr is the sponsor of Senate bill 1873, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Biodefense_and_Pandemic_Vaccine_and_Drug_Development_Act_of_2005" title="Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005">Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005</a>, nicknamed "Bioshield Two", which he says will give the Department of Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines."<a name="Money_in_politics" id="Money_in_politics"> </a><h2>Money in politics</h2>This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. <crpcontribdata>cid=N00002221&cycle=2006</crpcontribdata><table class="prettytable"><tbody><tr><th colspan="3">Links to more campaign contribution information for Richard Burr
from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> site.</th></tr><tr><td>Fundraising profile:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr><tr><td>Top contributors by organization/corporation:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allcontrib.asp?cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allcontrib.asp?cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr><tr><td>Top contributors by industry:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?cid=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?cid=N00002221" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr></tbody></table><ul><li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.asp?mem=Burr%2C+Richard" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.asp?mem=Burr%2C+Richard" rel="nofollow">Revolving door profile for Richard Burr</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li><li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/travel.asp?CID=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/travel.asp?CID=N00002221" rel="nofollow">2006 privately funded travel profile for Richard Burr</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li><li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00002221" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00002221" rel="nofollow">Personal finance profile for Richard Burr</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li></ul>
 <a name="Committees_and_Affiliations" id="Committees_and_Affiliations"> </a><h2>Committees and Affiliations</h2><a name="Committees" id="Committees"> </a><h3>Committees</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Energy_and_Natural_Resources" title="Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources">Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources</a><ul><li>Subcommittee on Energy</li><li>Subcommittee on National Parks</li><li>Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests</li></ul></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Health,Education,Labor,and_Pensions" title="Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions">Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions</a><ul><li>Subcommittee on Employment & Workplace Safety</li><li>Subcommittee on Retirement & Aging</li></ul></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Select_Committee_on_Intelligence" title="Senate Select Committee on Intelligence">Senate Select Committee on Intelligence</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Veterans%27_Affairs" title="Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs">Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Indian_Affairs" title="Senate Committee on Indian Affairs">Senate Committee on Indian Affairs</a></li></ul><a name="Committee_assignments_in_the_109th_Congress.282005-2006.29" id="Committee_assignments_in_the_109th_Congress.282005-2006.29"> </a><h4>Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)</h4><ul><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Energy_and_Natural_Resources" title="Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources">Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources</a><ul><li>Subcommittee on Energy</li><li>Subcommittee on National Parks</li><li>Subcommittee on Water and Power</li></ul></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Indian_Affairs" title="Senate Committee on Indian Affairs">Senate Committee on Indian Affairs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Health,Education,Labor,and_Pensions" title="Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions">Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions</a><ul><li>Subcommittee on Bioterrorism Preparendess and Public Health - Chair</li><li>Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development</li><li>Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety</li></ul></li><li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Senate_Committee_on_Veterans%27_Affairs" title="Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs">Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs</a></li></ul><div class="item first active"><div class="header"><h3><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/candidate/biography/21787#">Current Legislative Committees</a></h3></div><div class="article clearfix"><ul class="link-list"><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/30/energy-and-natural-resources">Energy and Natural Resources</a>, Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/41/health-education-labor-and-pensions">Health, Education, Labor and Pensions</a>, Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/44/select-committee-on-intelligence">Select Committee on Intelligence</a>, Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/12725/subcommittee-on-children-and-families">Subcommittee on Children and Families</a>, Ranking Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/3973/subcommittee-on-energy">Subcommittee on Energy</a>, Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/3975/subcommittee-on-national-parks">Subcommittee on National Parks</a>, Ranking Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/12727/subcommittee-on-primary-health-and-aging">Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging</a>, Member</li><li><a href="http://www.votesmart.org/offices/committee/47/veterans-affairs">Veterans' Affairs</a>, Ranking Member</li></ul></div></div> <a name="More_Background_Data" id="More_Background_Data"> </a><h2>More Background Data</h2><ul><li><a href="http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=CNIP0695" class="external text" title="http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=CNIP0695" rel="nofollow">Background information on Richard Burr from Project Vote Smart</a></li><li><a href="http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=CNIP0695" class="external text" title="http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=CNIP0695" rel="nofollow">Interest group scorecard ratings for Richard Burr from Project Vote Smart</a></li><li><a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b001135" class="external text" title="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b001135" rel="nofollow">Voting record for Richard Burr from the Washington Post database</a></li><li><a href="http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=NCJR&site=congressmerge" class="external text" title="http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=NCJR&site=congressmerge" rel="nofollow">Information on Richard Burr from Congress Merge</a></li></ul>= votesmart <div class="prepend-3"><div class="border-top-1 clearfix section span-10"><h4>Summary</h4><table><tbody><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Cycle</td><td class="span-4 currency">2012</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Total Raised</td><td class="span-4 currency">$9,625,960.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Total Spent</td><td class="span-4 currency">$5,737,306.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Cash On Hand</td><td class="span-4 currency">$1,038,671.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Debt</td><td class="span-4 currency">$0.00</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00002221&cycle=2010">Data provided by OpenSecrets.org</a></div></div><div style="float: left;"><div class="border-top-2 clearfix"><div class="border-top-1 clearfix section span-10"><h4>Top Contributors</h4><table><tbody><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">New Breed Inc</td><td class="span-4 currency">$82,550.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Reynolds American</td><td class="span-4 currency">$72,151.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Scana Corp</td><td class="span-4 currency">$62,099.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Womble, Carlyle et al</td><td class="span-4 currency">$54,677.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Duke Energy</td><td class="span-4 currency">$51,395.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Wells Fargo</td><td class="span-4 currency">$41,540.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Bank of America</td><td class="span-4 currency">$37,020.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">BB&T Corp</td><td class="span-4 currency">$34,652.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Northwestern Mutual</td><td class="span-4 currency">$30,220.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Lowe's Companies</td><td class="span-4 currency">$29,850.00</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="prepend-3" style="float: left;"><div class="border-top-2 clearfix"><div class="border-top-1 clearfix section span-10"><h4>Top Industries</h4><table><tbody><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Retired</td><td class="span-4 currency">$591,291.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Health Professionals</td><td class="span-4 currency">$476,442.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Lawyers/Law Firms</td><td class="span-4 currency">$429,283.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Pharmaceuticals/Health Products</td><td class="span-4 currency">$421,503.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Insurance</td><td class="span-4 currency">$407,101.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Lobbyists</td><td class="span-4 currency">$319,594.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Securities & Investment</td><td class="span-4 currency">$316,325.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Leadership PACs</td><td class="span-4 currency">$299,241.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Real Estate</td><td class="span-4 currency">$298,618.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Electric Utilities</td><td class="span-4 currency">$285,479.00</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div style="float: left;"><div class="border-top-2 clearfix"><div class="border-top-1 clearfix section span-10"><h4>Top Sectors</h4><table><tbody><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Finance/Insur/RealEst</td><td class="span-4 currency">$1,491,494.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Health</td><td class="span-4 currency">$1,206,675.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Misc Business</td><td class="span-4 currency">$1,141,498.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Lawyers & Lobbyists</td><td class="span-4 currency">$748,877.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Other</td><td class="span-4 currency">$703,846.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Energy/Nat Resource</td><td class="span-4 currency">$669,895.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Agribusiness</td><td class="span-4 currency">$616,334.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Ideology/Single-Issue</td><td class="span-4 currency">$499,178.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Construction</td><td class="span-4 currency">$294,749.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Communic/Electronics</td><td class="span-4 currency">$268,138.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Transportation</td><td class="span-4 currency">$260,959.00</td></tr><tr><td class="span-5">Defense</td><td class="span-4 currency">$176,947.00</td></tr><tr class="odd"><td class="span-5">Labor</td><td class="span-4 currency">$10,000.00</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>  </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>