Leak probe approves Nunes for return to Russia inquiry

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on a complaint that he may have leaked classified information, paving the way for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to again lead his panel’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Separately Thursday, The Washington Post reported that an executive at a Russian social media company made overtures to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russian Americans and Russians.

The Ethics Committee said in a brief statement that it determined Nunes did not release classified material while talking about information he had received on a clandestine trip to the White House in April. Nunes had stepped aside from the Russia probe pending the ethics investigation and amid criticism that he was too close to the White House. Two watchdog groups, Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had requested the inquiry.

If Nunes were to return to the investigation, it would put a close ally of President Donald Trump at the head of one of the congressional investigations into whether Russia coordinated with his campaign. Nunes was part of Trump’s transition team after the election and questioned suggestions of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, has led the probe in Nunes’ absence.

According to the Post, the executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year with an offer to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, people familiar with the messages told the Post.

“It will be the top news in Russia,” Konstantin Sidorkov, VK’s director of partnership marketing, wrote Nov. 5, 2016.

While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. An attorney for Trump Jr. said his client forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino early in the year and could not recall any further discussion about it.

The emails, which were read to the Post and confirmed by people with knowledge of their contents, show a new point of direct contact between an influential Russians and advisers to Trump during the 2016 race.