Virginia Senator Mark Warner texted Putin lobbyist Adam Waldman to connect with Christopher Steele, but avoid paper trail
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner had “extensive contact last year” with lobbyist Adam Waldman in an effort to set up a meeting with Christopher Steele, who wrote a phony dossier on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, Fox News reported.
The new report details how Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, had frequent contacts with Waldman, who runs the Endeavor Group, a Washington lobbying firm that worked with a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska.
“Chris Steele asked me to call you,” Waldman wrote to Warner in a March 16, 2017, message that began their conversation about setting up the meeting.
Mark Warner photo/ donkeyhotey
On March 20, Warner pressed Waldman by text to get him access to Steele.: “Can you talk tomorrow want to get with ur English friend,” Warner texted.
“I spoke to him yesterday,” Waldman texted back.
“We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country,” Warner texted the lobbyist, Adam Waldman, on March 22, 2017.
“I’m in,” Waldman, whose firm has ties to Hillary Clinton, texted back to Warner.
On March 26, Warner texted, “Really need to set date things r going to really pick up.”
“Standying by to do it,” texted Waldman. “Awaiting call from your scheduler and also the letter he (Steele) would like they(sic) we discussed. And have second interesting thing to raise. Pls call.”
But after calls back and forth, Warner made clear that he wanted to talk to Steele directly without Burr or anyone else being involved, even though Steele was insisting through Waldman that the contact start with a bipartisan letter inviting him to cooperate with the Senate panel.
“Hey can’t we do brief (off the record) call today before letter so I can frame letter,” Warner texted Waldman on March 29.
“Steele wants to have letter first. Or did you mean call w me?” Waldman texted back.
“We want to do this right private in London don’t want to send letter yet cuz if we can’t get agreement wud rather not have paper trail,” Warner wrote back March 30 as the two worked to hammer out the conditions of the meeting.
Steele had requested a joint letter from Warner and the Senate Committee’s Republican Chairman Senator Richard Burr officially requesting an interview, according to the texts, but the Senators did not want to send the letter and create a paper trail.
Fox noted that “An aide to Warner confirmed to Fox News that the text messages are authentic. The messages, which were obtained from a Republican source, are all marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and are not classified. They were turned over to the Senate panel by Waldman last September.”
Trump tweeted, wasting now time to attack Hillary: “Wow!—Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch. Warner did not want a “paper trail” on a “private” meeting (in London) he requested with Steele of fraudulent Dossier fame.”
The president added: “All tied into Crooked Hillary.”
“From the beginning of our investigation we have taken each step in a bipartisan way, and we intend to continue to do so,” Warner and Burr said in the statement. “Leaks of incomplete information out of context by anyone, inside or outside our committee, are unacceptable.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another member of the committee, tweeted Thursday night that Warner “fully disclosed this to the committee four months ago.” He added that the disclosure “has had zero impact on our work.”
photo/ donkeyhotey
