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The danger here remains twofold. First, Republicans might drag their feet, hoping the public will lose interest. Second, the committee might be insufficiently aggressive. It should, for example, determine if the Russians were attempting to use financial leverage over Trump or any advisers, including his appointed national security adviser, who reportedly had FIVE calls with the Russian ambassador on the day the president was expelling Russian diplomats. (“The calls raised fresh questions among some U.S. officials about contacts between Trump’s advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multifaceted campaign of hacking and other actions to boost Republican Trump’s election chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton,” Reuters reports.) Flynn was a frequent commentator on the Russian propaganda outlet RT. The president-elect should be expected to produce for on-camera inspection his tax and bank records to dispel any concerns about whether Russia has financial leverage over him.

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Critics of the president-elect’s Russia policy who remain deeply suspicious of connections between Trump and the Russians seem to be of two minds. On one hand, the committee has a strong relationship with the intelligence community and has serious Republican members (e.g., Marco Rubio of Florida, Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma) who likely will push for a vigorous and fair investigation. On the other hand, expecting Republicans to root out possibly incriminating information on a president of their own party may be expecting too much. For this very reason, following 9/11 an independent commission conducted the inquiry. Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded exactly that — or a select committee — in a statement earlier in the week. (“The American people need to know the credibility of these allegations of attempts to compromise the President-elect—his public statements about Russia and President Putin are even more worrisome in this context. These reports, though unverified, warrant serious investigation by a Select Committee in Congress or a Commission of public officials and private citizens with subpoena power to investigate them—led by people of integrity like General Colin Powell and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.”) We would hope that Democrats and principled Republicans would speak up and, if needed, issue a minority report if they concluded the committee acted in a partisan manner.

The president-elect should pledge to cooperate fully and demand his staff and advisers do so as well. Otherwise, he will convey to voters that he is unserious about Russian espionage and/or has something to hide. No one in the administration should be allowed to remain in office if he or she takes the Fifth. Either Trump intends to cooperate fully or he intends to stonewall.

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