Exposed: Top Dem probing Trump has own Russia secret

The Democrats long have claimed that it was the Trump campaign that was colluding with Russians to steal the 2016 election from their candidate, the now twice-failed Hillary Clinton.

The facts are that Clinton's campaign paid an operative to get information from Russians to create a dossier of "dirt" on her political foe, Donald Trump.

Now another Democrat has been revealed as having texted many times with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch as he tried to set up a meeting with ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who was funded by the Democrats while he wrote the dossier, which was used as evidence to get permission to spy on the Trump campaign.

Ed Henry at Fox News reports that there are text messages that reveal Sen. Mark Warner tried to set up that meeting.

Warner has "been leading a congressional investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia," the report noted, even though he "had extensive contact last year with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch who was offering Warner access to former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele."

"We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country," Warner texted the lobbyist, Adam Waldman, on March 22, 2017.

"I'm in," Waldman, whose firm has ties to Hillary Clinton, texted back to Warner.

"Steele famously put together the anti-Trump dossier of unverified information that was used by FBI and Justice Department officials in October 2016 to get a warrant to conduct surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page," Fox reported.

Fox reported that throughout the text exchanges, during which "secrecy seemed very important to Warner," the senator "seemed particularly intent on connecting directly with Steele without anyone else on the Senate Intelligence Committee being in the loop – at least initially. In one text to the lobbyist, Warner wrote that he would 'rather not have a paper trail' of his messages," Fox said.

Fox confirmed with a Warner aide that the text messages, which came from a Republican source to Fox, are real.

They were not classified.

Fox reported Waldman runs the Endeavor Group in Washington, and at one point in 2009 and 2010 lobbied the U.S. government on behalf of Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska, whose visa was revoked because of claims of his ties to organized crime.

A statement from North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Warner criticized the release of the information.

"Leaks of incomplete information out of context by anyone, inside or outside our committee, are unacceptable," they said.

"In one text, Warner suggested he did not want Burr or any other senator included in the discussions: 'Ok but I wud (sic) like to do prelim call u me and him no one else before letter just so we have to trail to start want to discuss scope first before letter no leaks,'" Fox reported.

Other times, too, Warner warned against a "paper trail."

He also made it clear "he wanted to talk to Steele directly without Burr or anyone else being involved, even though Steele was insisting through Waldman that the contact start with a bipartisan letter inviting him to cooperate with the Senate panel," Fox reported.

The report said the texts were given to the intel committee after Warner and Burr signed a joint request.