Text messages exchanged by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch were reportedly leaked to Fox News by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee found.
Two congressional offices told the New York Times the Senate Intelligence Committee’s leaders, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Warner, raised the issue of the leak with House Speaker Paul Ryan during a rare meeting.
During the gathering, the senators told Ryan, R-Wis., of their conclusions and also discussed worries they had about the House Intelligence Committee under Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are conducting respective investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
But, Ryan told Burr and Warner during the meeting that while he understood their concerns, he didn’t lead the committee, according to the New York Times.
A spokesman for Nunes criticized the New York Times in a statement.
“The New York Times, a prominent purveyor of leaks, is highlighting anonymous sources leaking information that accuses Republicans of leaking information,” spokesman Jack Langer told the New York Times. “I’m not sure if this coverage could possibly get more absurd.”
Warner and Adam Waldman, the lobbyist, exchanged messages for several months in 2017 via a secure messaging app. During their conversations, Warner tried to set up a meeting with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who wrote the salacious dossier about President Trump.
Waldman, whose firm worked on behalf of a Russian oligarch, knew Steele and said Steele preferred Warner and Burr send a letter asking him to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Copies of the text messages were given to the Senate Intelligence Committee by Waldman, and in January, staff for Nunes asked for copies to be shared with the House Intelligence Committee.
The communications were then detailed in an article published by Fox News several days later, the New York Times reported.
Fox News said it obtained the text messages, marked “CONFIDENTIAL,” from a “Republican source.”
After the story from Fox News was published, President Trump and other Republicans criticized Warner.
“Wow! -Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch,” Trump tweeted Feb. 8. “Warner did not want a ‘paper trail’ on a ‘private’ meeting (in London) he requested with Steele of fraudulent Dossier fame. All tied into Crooked Hillary.”
Burr and Warner denounced the leak of the texts in a joint statement last month, saying they were based on “incomplete information.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, defended Warner in the wake of the Fox News report.
“Sen.Warner fully disclosed this to the committee four months ago.Has had zero impact on our work,” Rubio tweeted.
The text messages between Warner and Waldman were leaked to Fox News not long after the House Intelligence Committee made public a memo detailing how Justice Department and FBI officials allegedly abused a government surveillance program to spy on former Trump campaign advisers.
The FBI and Justice Department objected to release of the controversial memo, which pitted the House Intelligence Committee’s Republican and Democratic members against each other.
Democrats compiled their own memo in response, which was released Saturday.
