Hot story from the Washington Post:

Trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials, key lawmakers to counter Russia stories

The Trump administration has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia, a politically charged issue that has been under investigation by the FBI as well as lawmakers now defending the White House.

Acting at the behest of the White House, the officials made calls to news organizations last week in attempts to challenge stories about alleged contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, U.S. officials said.

So, recap. Last Sunday, Reince Priebus claimed he’d talked to the FBI about the possible Trump/Russian connection, and (he said) they told him everything they’d found so far, and (he insisted) there was nothing to any of those charges.

This week, we found out that Priebus called the FBI Deputy Director and then the FBI Directory, pressuring them to call the press and “…publicly knock down media reports” of the Russian connections. During the active, unfinished FBI investigation of the White House.

And today, we find that the White House didn’t stop with the FBI. They then called Congresspeople, including Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees.  These are the congressional committees that are charged with investigating possible illicit Russian connections to the White House. They haven’t completed their investigations, but they have access to classified information.  Those two lawmakers admitted they did then call reporters. More lawmakers (anonymously) admitted doing the same.

The White House asked both chairmen of the intelligence committees — the people charged with investigating the White House — to spin their as-yet-unknown results as nothing important.

And both august lawmakers, lions of the Republican Party, ethical leaders of the party of ideas, did exactly what the White House asked of them.

At least during Watergate, leading Republicans had the decency to be appalled at Nixon’s illegal actions.