for Graham confirmed to The Daily Beast that the three chairmen are working on a joint investigation. That means their three committees–the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Committee on Finance, and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee–have come together to investigate Ukraine’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.
It’s a move that will frustrate national security, law enforcement and intelligence officials. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team secured indictments of 34 people while investigating the far-flung Russian campaign to destabilize America’s 2016 election; evidence for any Ukrainian counterpart, at this point, amounts to a few comments and an op-ed by a few Ukranian officials—plus Telizhenko’s allegations.
The Intelligence Community told Senators earlier this fall that Russian security services were pushing the allegations about Ukrainian meddling in 2016, according to The New York Times. For many members of Congress, that put the issue to bed; giving any legitimacy to Telizhenko’s allegations was akin to amplifying a Kremlin disinformation campaign. (“Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore,” Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said last month. “Now they’re accusing Ukraine.”)
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