Hearing on Russia with Obama officials back on
Then-head of House intelligence panel canceled the planned testimony last month.
WASHINGTON — A previously canceled House Intelligence Committee hearing to receive testimony from three former top Obama administration officials about Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election is back on for next month.
The panel said it had invited Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general fired by President Trump, former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan to testify sometime after May 2 in an open hearing after the original date was abruptly canceled in March by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Tulare).
The announcement Friday indicates that the Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, which was thrown into turmoil last month after Nunes recused himself amid allegations he may have improperly disclosed classified information, is getting back on track. Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) has succeeded Nunes as head of the investigation.
A committee news release Thursday also said that FBI Director James B. Comey and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency, would testify in a closed session on May 2.
Nunes’ decision to call off the original hearing with Yates, Brennan and Clapper came days after the committee’s first public hearing, in which Comey confirmed that the bureau was investigating Russia’s ties to President Trump’s associates.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (DBurbank), the committee’s ranking member, called the cancellation of the hearing a “dodge” by Nunes intended to aid the White House. Schiff said Nunes’ connections to the White House raised insurmountable public doubts about whether the committee could credibly investigate the president’s campaign associates.
Yates, who was fired in late January after she refused to defend the Trump administration’s proposed travel ban, was expected to be questioned about her role in the firing of Trump’s first national security advisor, Michael Flynn.
Yates, a deputy attorney general during the Obama administration, alerted the White House in January that Flynn had misled it about whether he had discussed sanctions in a December phone call with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Flynn was not ousted until the discrepancies were made public.
Nunes came under fierce criticism from Democrats for making public information provided to him last month by White House aides concerning classified intelligence reports that apparently referred to Trump associates — information that Nunes had not provided to members of his committee.
He stepped aside as head of the Russia inquiry after the House Ethics Committee said it was investigating whether Nunes improperly disclosed classified information, apparently when he held a news conference in March to claim that Trump associates’ names had been revealed in intelligence reports. Nunes has denied wrongdoing.