Dem. Sen. texted with Russian lobbyist to try connecting with Chris Steele

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has been leading the congressional investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia. 

Fox News has learned that Warner had "extensive contact last year with Adam Waldman, who runs the Endeavor Group in Washington and is a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch. Waldman was offering the Virginia senator access to former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele," as evidenced from text messages obtained exclusively by Fox News.

Warner texted Waldman, whose firm has ties to Hillary Clinton, on March 22, 2017:

"We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country."

Waldman's response:

"I'm in."

It was Christopher Steele who put the anti-Trump unverified dossier together that was used by FBI and DoJ officials in October 2016 to get a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, a former Trump adviser and possibly an idiot. Steele, however, has not agreed to allow an interview with the committee.

Apparently, Warner didn't want anyone else on the committee to know about his conversations with Waldman. On March 29, Waldman told the senator that Steele wanted a bipartisan letter from Warner and the committee's chairman Sen Richard Burr (R-NC) inviting him to speak with the Senate Intelligence panel.

But Warner's communications showed his intention of keeping the rest of the panel out of the loop, at least initially, ostensibly because he'd "rather not have a paper trail" of his messages.

Fox News was told by a Warner aide that the messages are authentic and are all marked "CONFIDENTIAL" but are not classified. They were obtained from a Republican source and turned over to the Senate panel by Waldman last September.

Waldman is known for signing a $40,000 monthly retainer in 2009 and 2010 to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska, who had his visa revoked by the State Department in 2006. The reason for his action was due to charges that he has organized crime ties which he denies, but so did the Clintons.

An aide to Burr told Fox News that Burr knew of the "contact" Warner made with Steele's representative but added, "I don't believe he was aware of the content of the text messages" initially.

Burr and Warner released a joint statement stressing they are working together, and they slammed the "leaks of incomplete information."

"From the beginning of our investigation we have taken each step in a bipartisan way, and we intend to continue to do so," their statement read. "Leaks of incomplete information out of context by anyone, inside or outside our committee, are unacceptable."

For more on this story by Fox News and the communications between Warner and Waldman go here. 

It's delicious.

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