Rhona Graff, longtime Trump assistant, to be interviewed by House Intelligence Committee
byMike Memoli
The House Intelligence Committee will question
longtime Donald Trump associate Rhona Graff on Friday, the latest in a
string of key interviews as the panel looks to conclude its probe of
Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The committee’s closed-door meeting with
Graff, who for over three decades was Trump’s gatekeeper at Trump Tower
in Manhattan and ultimately a senior vice president at the Trump
Organization, will be the second this week to take place at an
undisclosed location in New York — over the objection of Democrats.
Most of the panel’s interviews have occurred
at a secure location inside the U.S. Capitol and been led by the elected
members of the committee. Though the House finished legislative
business for the calendar year on Thursday, only a handful of lawmakers
are expected to travel to New York for the closed-door meeting.
Rhona Graff during Olympus Fashion Week at Bryant Park on February 10, 2005, in New York. Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images file
Democrats left Washington for the holiday
recess Thursday after a new round of urgent warnings about what they
portray as Republicans’ stepped-up efforts to undermine the Department
of Justice investigation into potential collusion between Trump campaign
officials and Russians.
Adding to existing concerns that Republicans
were seeking to rush the Intelligence Committee's Russia probe,
Democrats say expanding House investigations into the conduct of FBI and
DOJ personnel risk undermining public confidence in federal law
enforcement and come at the expense of steps to address Russian attempts
to interfere in past elections and likely future ones.
Reflecting the party’s concerns at the highest
levels, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote to House
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Thursday urging him to “take urgent
action” to ensure that congressional investigations into Russia’s
“assault on our election systems” continue.
“Political haste must not cut short valid
investigatory threats,” Pelosi wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.
“Key questions about foreign interference in our elections remain, and
must be thoroughly investigated. Nothing less than America’s democracy
and national security at stake.” Related: Public split on extent of the Russia probe, NBC/WSJ poll finds
Meanwhile, a House Democratic leadership aide
accused Ryan of being complicit in GOP efforts to stifle meaningful
investigation into Russia’s campaign of interference. The aide noted
there has not been a full committee hearing on Russia’s hacking into
U.S. elections or power grids, or on combating foreign disinformation
campaigns on social media.
“Ryan is shielding President Trump from the
Russia investigation by rejecting repeated calls for an independent
commission and investigation — and enabling the House Intel committee to
conduct a partisan investigation,” the aide said.
Senior Republicans on the Intelligence Committee have told NBC News
that they see the panel’s Russia probe nearing a conclusion. This week
the panel again held a battery of interviews with witnesses — including
three in one day — in both New York and Washington.
Where is the 'red line' in the Russia investigation?4:39
On Wednesday in New York, committee staff
interviewed Felix Sater, a Russian-born former Trump business associate
who sought in 2016 to broker a deal for a new Trump Tower in Moscow.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat
on the committee, questioned the need to schedule so many interviews in
such a short period of time and hold out-of-state interviews with
witnesses who were willing to appear in Washington next month, saying
these were just the latest indications “that there’s going to be an
effort to shut us down.”
“In several cases we’ve only received hundreds
of pages of documents the day of the interview, or the majority has
received hundreds of pages of documents without informing the minority,”
he said. “It’s no way to conduct an investigation. Not if you’re
serious about getting to the truth. It is a way to conduct an
investigation if you want to give the appearance of legitimacy or you
want to bring things to an end.” Related: Sen. Warner warns Trump against ‘firing’ Mueller, pardons
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who is leading the
Intel probe, said this week that the committee has already completed
sections of a final report that could be issued in the coming months.
But he also indicated that more witnesses could be called when lawmakers
return to Washington in January.
“The quicker we get the answers that we
believe get to the truth of what happened, who did what where and when,
the quicker we can get out the better it is for the American people,” he
told reporters.
On Thursday, deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe
sat for a second marathon interrogation before lawmakers, this time at
an “emergency” meeting called by the chairmen of the House Judiciary and
Oversight Committees. The closed-door session was narrowly focused on
the bureau’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s
private email server, members said.
He spent more than nine hours on Capitol Hill
on Thursday after a nearly eight-hour interview with the Intelligence
Committee on Tuesday.
House
Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,
speaks at an open hearing in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on June
21, 2017. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
A source familiar with McCabe’s testimony
before the Intelligence committee told NBC News that McCabe confirmed
that then-FBI Director James Comey told him that Trump had asked for a
loyalty pledge from him.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking
Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement that
McCabe showed in his answers that he “is a man of great patriotism,
integrity and honor.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., another member of
the Oversight Committee, said during a break in the interview that the
GOP’s decision to focus on the actions of FBI personnel rather than the
Russians represented a “dereliction of duty” and “a disgrace.”
“The [democratic] process has been hacked and
undermined by the Russians. And we don’t want to go near it, because the
president doesn’t want them to,” he said. “I think there’s an easy way
for us to look at the Russian hacking issue and not implicate the
outcome of the president’s election. I think he’s very sensitive to
that. But that should not deter us from doing our job.”
The situation in the House stands in stark
contrast to the Senate, whose own Intelligence Committee is shifting its
investigation into a new phase that includes plans to hold open
hearings and bring back certain witnesses for additional interviews with
senators.
The panel is also moving toward issuing an
interim report as soon as early January that would include initial
findings about Russia’s attempts to influence the political debate here.
“I think we have to get the election part done
pretty early if we hope to have the kind of protections and assistance
in the system we’d like to have,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “Remember,
people start casting votes in like March.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top
Democrat who this week issued a stark warning to Trump against firing
special counsel Robert Mueller, said there was no move to end the
committee’s broader probe.
“I think we’d all like to see it go quicker," Warner said, but adding "to a degree it sets its own pace."
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