23 August 2020
Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the panel passed the fifth and final volume of its report on Russian interference in the 2016 election with a 14 to 1 vote.
Why it matters: It underscores the bipartisan nature of the explosive report, which found that Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort passed sensitive polling data and campaign strategy to a Russian intelligence officer who may have been involved in the hacking of Democratic emails.
- The 996-page report goes into more detail than the Mueller report in showing the extent of Russia's connections to the Trump campaign.
The big picture: Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) was the sole Republican on the committee to vote against the report. He said he did so because it "fails to explicitly state" that the investigation "found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."
- In a statement accompanying the release of the report, acting Senate Intelligence chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also said: “We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election."
- While both sides agreed on the facts laid out in the report, Democrats vehemently dispute that the report found no evidence of "collusion."
What they're saying: "Respectfully, I disagree with Marco on that," Warner said. "Richard Burr was chairman for most of the investigation as I was vice chair. We decided that we would not join any other comments that we would let the report stand as it is. This is a report that was passed 14 to 1."
Between the lines: Warner explained that the report went into "much more detail than Mueller" because it was a "counterintelligence report, not a criminal report."
- The report laid out "unprecedented contacts between Russians and folks on the Trump campaign. Trump campaign officials welcomed that help. And maybe one of the most stunning was the level of detail of the then-campaign manager Paul Manafort sharing very specific campaign information with a Russian agent," Warner continued.
- "We'll never know what the Russians did with that information. But think about that, a campaign manager sharing with a known Russian agent during the middle of a campaign."
Go deeper: Mueller prosecutor says there are new revelations in Senate Russia report
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.