Three Obama officials invited to testify

Open House panel hearing on Russia meddling back in plans

WASHINGTON — A previously canceled House Intelligence Committee hearing to receive testimony from three top officials in former President Barack Obama’s administration about Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election is back on for next month.

The panel said Friday that it had invited Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general fired by President Donald Trump; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; and former CIA Director John Brennan to testify sometime after May 2 in an open hearing after their original testimony was abruptly canceled in March by Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The announcement indicates that the panel’s Russia investigation, which was thrown into turmoil last month after Nunes stepped aside as head of the probe after allegations he may have improperly disclosed classified information, is getting back on track.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took over as head of the investigation after Nunes’ decision.

A committee news release Thursday also said FBI Director James Comey and Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency, would testify in a closed session May 2.

Nunes’ decision to call off the original hearing with Yates, Brennan and Clapper came only days after the committee’s first public hearing, in which Comey confirmed that the bureau was investigating Russia’s ties to Trump’s associates.

Rep. Adam Schiff, DCalif., called the cancellation of the hearing a “dodge” by Nunes 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 January after she refused to defend the Trump administration’s travel ban, was expected to be questioned about her role in the firing of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Yates alerted the White House in January that Flynn had misled the White House about whether he had discussed sanctions in a December phone call with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Flynn was not ousted from the White House until the discrepancies were made public.

Nunes came under fierce criticism from Democrats for making public information provided him to him last month by White House aides concerning classified intelligence reports that apparently referred to Trump associates — information Nunes did not provide to members of his committee.

He stepped aside as head of the Russia investigation after the leaders of the House Ethics Committee said that panel is investigating whether Nunes improperly disclosed classified information, apparently when he held a news conference last month to claim that Trump associates’ names had been revealed in intelligence reports.

Nunes has denied wrongdoing.

In Estonia, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Saturday that one of the reasons Congress is investigating allegations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election is to “prevent the same kind of thing happening” to its NATO and other allies.

Ryan spoke at a news conference with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, during a visit by a bipartisan congressional delegation to the Baltic NATO member and staunch Washington ally.

While the Wisconsin Republican claimed that Russia’s alleged meddling didn’t affect the outcome of the election, he said its actions “cannot be tolerated.”

“One thing we know for certain is that Russia meddled in our election,” Ryan said. “This is a foreign country trying to meddle within the internal activities of a sovereign country or a democracy.”

He stressed the U.S has a responsibility to share the results of the Russia investigation with countries like Estonia, which in recent years has faced aggressive Russian disinformation campaigns along with Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania.

“What we’ re doing through our investigation process is to figure out exactly what it is they did and how they did it so that we can help, equip and assist our allies to prevent the same kind of thing happening to them,” Ryan said.

Ryan was to meet with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid later Saturday with his eight- lawmaker delegation. Estonia was the last stop in the delegation’s European tour, which also included visits to Britain, Norway and Poland.