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Speaker 1: The Senate Intelligence Committee is taking up the baton dropped

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Speaker 1: by the House Intelligence Committee. It opened its hearing this

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Speaker 1: morning on Russian interference in the US presidential election, with

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Speaker 1: the top Republican and Democrat pledging to steer clear of politics.

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Speaker 1: Republican Chairman Richard Burrs that his panel is fully engaged

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Speaker 1: in the investigation. The committee will engage in an activity

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Speaker 1: that's quite rare for US, an open hearing on an

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Speaker 1: ongoing critical intelligence question, the role of Russian active measures

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Speaker 1: past and present, and Democratic Vice Chairman Mark Warner said,

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Speaker 1: you may have been reading Russian propaganda on Facebook, even

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Speaker 1: if you don't have Russian friends. The Russians employed thousands

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Speaker 1: of paid Internet trolls and botan nets to push out

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Speaker 1: disinformation and fake news at high volume. Falso facing focusing

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Speaker 1: this material onto your Twitter and Facebook feeds, and flooding

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Speaker 1: our social media with misinformation. Our guest is William Banks.

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Speaker 1: He's director of the Institute for National Security and counter

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Speaker 1: Terrorism at Syracuse University Law School. Starting with the press

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Speaker 1: conference yesterday, Burr and Warner have tried to distance themselves

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Speaker 1: from the House Committee. How much confidence do you have, William,

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Speaker 1: that this can be an investigation free of partisan politics. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's a good question, and I think the answers will

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Speaker 1: We'll have to take it a day at a time. Certainly,

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Speaker 1: the press conference yesterday was a good one, and the

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Speaker 1: hearings being conducted today, part of which I've have watched online,

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Speaker 1: seem like they're moving along in a very business like matter. Certainly,

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Speaker 1: Chairman Burr and Vice Chairman Warner have put their best

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Speaker 1: posture on this, and it's certainly capable of of carrying

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Speaker 1: out a bipartisan investigation. Burr, I think earlier had some

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Speaker 1: contact with the White House or was being seen to

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Speaker 1: be doing the bidding of the White House before these

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Speaker 1: hearings began, But I believe he's tried to clear the

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Speaker 1: slate and move forward. So here we should be optimistic

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Speaker 1: one day at a time. Bill, What do you think

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Speaker 1: the big test will be of this bipartisanship. What issues

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Speaker 1: are going to come up there are going to test?

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Speaker 1: In particular, Senator Burke, Well, I think the general question

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Speaker 1: of Russian interference or influences in the campaign and in

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Speaker 1: the election will will not be particularly difficult for them

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Speaker 1: to manage, and so far that's what they're doing. Even

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Speaker 1: the Trump administration has conceded that those activities occurred, and

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Speaker 1: so many uh entities in the executive branch have reached

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Speaker 1: that same conclusion so far. When it's going to get dicey,

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Speaker 1: of course, is is when the committee, if the committee

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Speaker 1: gets to inquiries of out the activities of the president

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Speaker 1: himself in Russia or the any allegations relating to his

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Speaker 1: him his family or his organizations in terms of financial

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Speaker 1: connections to Russia. Well, that's why the question I have is, really,

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Speaker 1: do you need a special prosecutor or a select committee? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so another good question, and I think what time will

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Speaker 1: tell that it's certainly possible to have simultaneous prosecution and

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Speaker 1: congressional investigations ongoing. In the fact that happens quite often.

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Speaker 1: And the delicacy then is making sure that one doesn't

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Speaker 1: get in the way of the other, that is compromising

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Speaker 1: witnesses or uh, you know, letting classified information out that

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Speaker 1: that is important to one investigation having to compromise another.

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Speaker 1: In terms of a select committee, yes, I think there's

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Speaker 1: a strong argument to be made that that that the

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Speaker 1: Congress itself could take the initiative to establish an independent

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Speaker 1: committee bipartisan of course, equally divided with its own cleared

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Speaker 1: staff and could get the job done. Certainly, the Senate

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Speaker 1: Intelligence Committee, liked the House Intelligence Committee is, is not

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Speaker 1: used to conducting an investigation of this time, nor are

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Speaker 1: they used to conducting open hearings. And some of these hearings,

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Speaker 1: of course, will be closed, and probably the more important

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Speaker 1: ones will be closed, and we'll have to see how

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Speaker 1: they handle the reporting on the uh you know, on

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Speaker 1: the exact contents of those hearings. But again, we could

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Speaker 1: have everything from the nine eleven type commission to a

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Speaker 1: select committee which could be done on the say so

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Speaker 1: of the Congress itself, to carrying on the way we

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Speaker 1: are now. The difficulty with the commission, which I think

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Speaker 1: in a perfect core old would be the direction to go,

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Speaker 1: is that it would require legislation like the nine eleven

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Speaker 1: Commission had, and to have that legislation enacted you likely

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Speaker 1: to have to overcome a White House veto. We have

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Speaker 1: about twenty seconds yere, so maybe a yes or no

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Speaker 1: answer bill. Is the House investigation dead in the water.

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Speaker 1: I think what we've seen from nooness yes it maybe.

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Speaker 1: I guess just today in the last hour I saw

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Speaker 1: that they've named two White House officials who actually delivered confidential, sensitive,

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Speaker 1: classified information to him regarding the investigation on his request.

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Speaker 1: So I think that's very damning. Indeed, thank you for

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Speaker 1: being on Bloomberg Law. That's William Banks, director of the

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Speaker 1: Institute for National Security and counter Terrorism at Syracuse University

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Speaker 1: Law School, coming up on Bloomberg Law. High stakes insider

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Speaker 1: trading trial of Las Vegas gambler Bill Walters. Golfer Phil

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Speaker 1: Mickelson has said he'll take the fifth call to testify,

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Speaker 1: So now prosecutors are turning their attention to getting evidence

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Speaker 1: in about Walter's connections with billionaire investor Carl Icon, who's

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Speaker 1: not accused of wrongdoing.