From Strangely Blogged:
The long-awaited 5th volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding Russian active intelligence measures is public, and goddamn. So, Russia was definitely trying to interfere, right? And the Trump campaign was definitely okay with that. And it really looks like there was probably kompromat, and like Trump lied about whether he ever spoke with Roger Stone (you know–this Roger Stone) about Wikileaks, and it looks like Wikileaks was laundering the DNC emails for Russia, and Paul Manafort is understood to have definitely been sharing campaign information with a “Russian intelligence officer”, Konstantin Kilimnik. It also shows that criminal referrals were made to DOJ regarding untruthful statements being made by folks like Steve Bannon and Don Jr. in 2019–although somehow the DOJ must have eaten them, because whatever could have happened? (Why, AG Barr happened, just like he happened to the end of the Mueller report. I reckon he means to be the wall-to-wall rug of Trump cover-ups.)
What we find is, in short, there was plenty of reason for a counter-intelligence investigation into the potential manipulation of a US presidential election by a hostile foreign power (not that Donald “Love Letters to Dictators” Trump understood it as such) and real concern about the many contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. along with the obvious business connections Trump had in Russia, despite his vehement denials about both (which only made things more suspicious). It would have been derelict not to have investigated.
And now, here we are–the Senate Intelligence Select Committee produces this (with intriguing redactions) report covering what I’ve been trying to cover with TrumpWorld Grab-Bags. The conclusion appears to be that, well, it looked bad because it was bad.