FBI briefings are strictly invitation only.

The invites themselves are delivered clandestinely — it is not unusual for staff to be completely unaware that their senator or rep has such a meeting until after it happens.

But the germane point here is that they are invitation only which makes it particularly interesting to look at who the invitees are. I think we can take it as read that anyone who is invited will be in attendance. These briefings are proving to be the most dramatic events happening in Congress this session so nobody invited would want to miss one for any reason.

The Senate Briefing

You may be forgiven for thinking that only two senators were invited to the second of the day’s briefings but there were, in fact, four senators there: Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, Ranking Member of the same committee, Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader and ex-officio member of all senate committees, and Mark Warner, Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It was The Hill reporter Katie Bo Williams who tweeted out the list of attendees:

x FBI Director Comey is in the Senate SCIF with Grassley and Feinstein. Schumer and Warner have also gone down. Ã¢ÂÂ Katie Bo Williams (@KatieBoWill) March 15, 2017

Those four invitees are notable initially because only one is a Republican. But even more intriguing is who was not on the invitation list:

Mitch McConnell who, as Majority Leader, is also an ex-officio member of all senate committees

and

Richard Burr who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Both their Democratic counterparts were invited but not them. This is also the second FBI briefing to which Schumer has been invited but not McConnell.

Mediaite had this to say about why they were there:

The two top lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee met with Comey after Grassley threatened to hold up the vote on Deputy Attorney General nominee Rod Rosenstein unless the FBI gave his panel a briefing on their investigations into Russian meddling in the election, any potential ties between Russia and President Donald Trump, and Trump’s claims that he was wiretapped by his predecessor.

Though this doesn’t explain why Schumer and Warner were also invited, it does give us some idea of the subject matter — or part thereof — covered by the briefing. What will be interesting next is how Grassley handles the Rosenstein’s nomination. The Hill reported:

Asked if he was prepared to move forward with Rosenstein's nomination after Wednesday's briefings, Grassley appeared to signal that the No. 2 DOJ nominee is still in limbo — at least temporarily. "I won't answer that until I've gone over all the answers I got," he told reporters Wednesday. As chairman of the committee, Grassley can effectively hold up the nomination by refusing to schedule a committee vote.

Most pertinent of all, and most reported upon, is the reaction of Grassley and Feinstein when they met with reporters afterwards. Raw Story reported they “looked grim and rattled” while others described Feinstein as looking “stricken” and Grassley “as though he’d seen a ghost.”

What struck me most was that it was Feinstein who spoke to reporters, not Grassley. It appeared that Feinstein took the lead because Grassley was too upset to do so. He stared at the ground a good deal.

What is not shown on the video is the very last part of this interview. The Hill had this report:

When a reporter asked if they were "satisfied" with the answers they got, Grassley turned to Feinstein, asked if she was "ready to go" and the two headed toward the subway that connects the Capitol to the Senate office buildings. "If you want to ask me some other time, but not in this environment right here," Grassley told the swarm of reporters and TV cameras.

The House Briefing

Only the two leaders of the House Intelligence Committee attended this briefing. Their reactions afterwards were markedly different to that of the senators.

Nunes appeared to be quite relaxed and certainly happy to talk about what was said in their briefing. Share Blue has a short video of his speaking with a CNN reporter. Included was this transcript and comment: