Sen. Mark Warner, left, the top Democrat on the
Senate Intelligence Committee who has been leading a congressional
investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia, had extensive
contact last year with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch who was offering
Warner access to former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele,
according to text messages obtained exclusively by Fox News. (AP)
Ed Henry reports on text messages obtained by Fox News
that show Sen. Mark Warner attempted to arrange a meeting with the dossier
author.
FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE – Sen.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been
leading a congressional investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to
Russia, had extensive contact last year with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch
who was offering Warner access to former British spy and dossier author
Christopher Steele, according to text messages obtained exclusively by Fox
News.
"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.
Steele famously put together the anti-Trump dossier of
unverified information that was used by FBI and Justice Department officials in
October 2016 to get a warrant to conduct surveillance of former Trump adviser
Carter Page. Despite the efforts, Steele has not agreed to an interview with
the committee.
Secrecy seemed very important to Warner as the
conversation with Waldman heated up March 29, when the lobbyist revealed that
Steele wanted a bipartisan letter from Warner and the committee’s chairman,
North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr, inviting him to talk to the Senate
intelligence panel.
Throughout the text exchanges, Warner seemed particularly
intent on connecting directly with Steele without anyone else on the Senate
Intelligence Committee being in the loop -- at least initially. In one text to
the lobbyist, Warner wrote that he would "rather not have a paper
trail" of his messages.
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.
Waldman, who did not return calls seeking comments, runs
the Endeavor Group in Washington.
Waldman is best known for signing a $40,000 monthly
retainer in 2009 and 2010 to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of
controversial Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska. Deripraska had his visa
revoked by the State Department in 2006 because of charges, which he has
denied, that he has organized crime ties.
The senators released a joint statement to Fox News
stressing they are working together, while blasting the “leaks of incomplete
information.”
They said the committee has been in possession of this
material for several months and committee investigators have pursued all
relevant investigative leads related to the material.
"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."
The conversation about Steele started on March 16, 2017,
when Waldman texted, "Chris Steele asked me to call you."
Warner responded, "Will call tomorrow be
careful."
The records show Warner and Waldman had trouble
connecting by phone. 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.
The two men appear to have finally connected about Steele
by phone on March 22, according to the records.
"Hey just tried u again gotta give a speech but really
want to finish our talk," Warner texted.
Waldman, at one point, texted back that Steele really
wanted a bi-partisan letter requesting his testimony first. He added that
Steele was concerned about word leaking to the media that they were talking.
In one text, Warner suggested he did not want Burr or any
other senator included in the discussions: "Ok but I wud (sic) like to do
prelim call u me and him no one else before letter just so we have to trail to
start want to discuss scope first before letter no leaks."
Waldman noted repeatedly that Steele was concerned about
leaks and was "spooked" by all of the attention he had received
around the world. Steele, he said, was skittish about talking to Warner.
Warner texted back on March 30: "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."
On April 5, Warner texted, "Any word on Steele.”
"Yes seems to have cold feet from the leaks. Said he
wanted a bipartisan letter followed by written questions," texted Waldman,
adding that the Wall Street Journal had contacted him asking if he was an
intermediary between the panel and Steele.
In the text messages, Warner also discussed the
possibility of a trip to see Steele.
On March 23, Warner texted, "Need to coordinate date
for trip can u talk with my scheduler also want to discuss Paul," an
apparent reference to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose
initials are used in the next text by Waldman.
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.
Trump reacted to the findings in a tweet late Thursday, writing, "All tied into
Crooked Hillary."
Warner’s text messages were quietly given to the
intelligence committee after he and Burr signed a joint request for the
messages last June. Warner and Burr privately informed the rest of the
Democratic and Republican senators on the panel of Warner's text messages in a
meeting last October.
A Warner aide acknowledged that Warner and Burr revealed
the texts to their colleagues on the panel because "they realized out of
context it doesn't look great." But aides to Warner and Burr both stressed
that the chairman was kept apprised of Warner's efforts.
An aide to Burr knew there was a "back channel"
Warner was using to try and get to Steele and was not concerned that Warner was
freelancing on the matter.
Warner began texting with Waldman in February 2017 about
the possibility of helping to broker a deal with the Justice Department to get
the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to potentially face
criminal charges. That went nowhere, though a Warner aide told Fox News that
the senator shared his previously undisclosed private conversations about
WikiLeaks with the FBI.
Over the course of four months between February and May
2017, Warner and Waldman also exchanged dozens of texts about possible
testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee from Deripaska, Waldman's
primary Russian billionaire client.
In January 2009, Harper's Magazine reported that Deripaska
had hired an advisory firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton to help him get a
visa to enter the United States." The magazine quoted Waldman as saying
his firm does not lobby, though he filed paperwork with the Justice Department
to represent Deripaska before the U.S. government.
In the dozens of text messages between February 2017 and
May 2017, Waldman also talked to Warner about getting Deripraska to cooperate
with the intelligence committee. There have been reports that Deripraksa, who
has sued Manafort over a failed business deal, has information to share about
the former Trump aide.
In May 2017, the Senate and House intelligence committees
decided not to give Deripraska legal immunity in exchange for testimony to the
panels. The text messages between Warner and Waldman appeared to stop that
month.
Ed
Henry currently serves as FOX News Channel’s (FNC) chief national
correspondent. He joined the network in June 2011.
