Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the two ranking members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Tuesday that former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn may have broken the law by not disclosing foreign income. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

The specter of Russian tampering with the 2016 elections continues to hang over Congress and President Trump, even during such a consequential week as this one.

The focus as Congress returned from a two-week recess was supposed to rest on meeting a Friday deadline to keep the federal government funded through the remainder of 2017. That grew more complicated as a dispute emerged about the amount, and type, of border security funding to include in a spending bill — and more complicated still after Trump announced that he would lay out on Wednesday what he wants in a broad overhaul of the tax code. Add to all that the House conservatives’ latest maneuvering to make progress on the still-lingering bid to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

But by early Tuesday, cameras and congressional reporters were assembled in a now-familiar spot in the lower levels of the Capitol Visitors Center: outside the secure location where the House conducts its most secretive work. Emerging from that room, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Oversight Committee declared that Trump’s first pick for national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, probably had violated the law by not disclosing foreign income for a speaking engagement in Russia and lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey before he briefly joined the administration earlier this year.

The bipartisan nature of the conclusion from two lawmakers, Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), whose public sparring previously had been seen as its own Capitol Hill specialty, may have been bigger news than the crimes they accused Flynn of committing. It’s also bad news for Trump, who can’t seem to shake the accusations that he is suspiciously cozy with Russia.

[A sizable minority of Americans think that President Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians]

Then, across the Capitol, the Senate finally confirmed a new deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 94 to 6. Rosenstein’s main duties will be day-to-day oversight of the Justice Department, but his highest profile assignment will be making the final calls on everything related to the counterintelligence investigation of Russian tampering in U.S. politics and any potential ties to the Trump campaign.

That’s because Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s most prominent supporters in last year’s campaign, recused himself from any decision-making role in inquiries related to the 2016 election.

The only objectors were six liberals, several of whom are thought to be eyeing the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, who wanted Rosenstein to declare in his confirmation hearings that he would appoint a special prosecutor independent of the Justice Department.

Despite that concern, the overwhelming majority of senators think Rosenstein ‘s background as a U.S. attorney from Baltimore, first appointed by the Republican George W. Bush White House and then endorsed by the Democratic Obama White House, will make him a perfect fit to shepherd this investigation to its proper conclusion.

“He is a straight shooter,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “He, as you say, is a prosecutor’s prosecutor, goes by the book. So, we’ll see, that’s the way he’s conducted himself up to this point. That’s what he’s done in Maryland, and I hope that is what he’ll do as deputy attorney general.”

[This man could soon be handling America’s most politically charged investigation]

Van Hollen expressed reservations about entrusting the investigation to anyone Trump could fire at will, particularly in light of the dismissal earlier this year of Sally Yates as acting attorney general after she refused to defend the president’s ban on travel from several majority-Muslim nations.

But the reality is, Democrats probably did themselves no favors by slow-walking Rosenstein’s confirmation. There’s now a well-trusted adult overseeing the most politically sensitive investigation in the country, a public face other than that of FBI Director James B. Comey, whose decision to speak publicly about the inquiry of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information on a private email server as secretary of state while never publicly addressing the Trump investigation left much of the public perplexed.

No one is certain where the multiple investigations will lead. And the fervor of each revelation has died down a bit. Only a couple of the nearly 10 questions Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) took at his weekly news conference Tuesday related to the Russia probes.

[Flynn probably broke the law by not fully disclosing foreign payments, House Oversight leaders say]

But the issue is not going away anytime soon. It always seems to be lurking in the background.

Schumer and a few of his fellow Democrats decided this was the week to criticize Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) for his handling of that panel’s review of Russian hacking of emails and other cyberattacks designed to tilt the election toward Trump. Schumer told reporters Tuesday that Burr was moving “too slowly.”

That criticism prompted Burr to reveal additional information about the inquiry, including the recent hiring of two additional investigators, up to nine from the seven he had announced last month — and triple the staffing that the committee had for its review of the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

Burr said the committee had conducted 27 interviews with witnesses related to the Russia investigation, with another handful scheduled for the near future He dismissed criticism from Schumer and others as misguided.

“I’m only concerned with people that know what’s going on. We’re making progress,” he said.

Yet the Russia inquiry is not limited to the Intelligence Committee. In between the Chaffetz-Cummings declaration of Flynn’s culpability and the Rosenstein confirmation, yet another panel has announced its next steps looking back at the 2016 campaign: On May 8, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from Yates and former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.

That subcommittee is headed by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s leading critics and a hawk on all matters related to Russia. Graham’s announcement about his parallel look at Russia and the 2016 campaign came after a Monday night dinner at the White House with Trump, along with Graham’s closest ally, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

McCain declined to talk about what the group discussed, but Graham, according to Politico, suggested that Trump expressed a healthy view of how trustworthy Russia is.

He wants to have as many allies as he can, but I think he understands Russia is somebody that’s been less than helpful lately,” Graham said.

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