New probe launched into Trump finances
Intelligence committee looks for ties to Russia
WASHINGTON — The House intelligence committee will launch a broad new investigation looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s foreign financial interests, Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday, moving ahead with the aggressive oversight that Democrats have promised now that they are in the majority.
A short time later, Mr. Trump called Democratic investigations into his administration and business “ridiculous” and “presidential harassment,” and labeled the intelligence committee’s chairman a “political hack.”
Mr. Schiff said his committee’s investigation will include “the scope and scale” of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, the “extent of any links and/or coordination” between Russians and Mr. Trump’s associates, whether foreign actors have sought to hold leverage over Mr. Trump or his family and associates, and whether anyone has sought to obstruct any of the relevant
investigations.
The announcement came one day after Mr. Trump criticized “ridiculous partisan investigations” in his State of the Union speech.
“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” the president said said to murmurs of disapproval from many Democrats in the House chamber.
Mr. Schiff dismissed those comments Wednesday.
“We’re going to do our jobs and the president needs to do his,” Mr. Schiff said. “Our job involves making sure that the policy of the United States is being driven by the national interest, not by any financial entanglement, financial leverage or other form of compromise.”
The California Democrat also announced a delay in an upcoming closed-door interview with Mr. Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, “in the interests of the investigation.” The interview was originally scheduled for Friday. It will now be held on Feb. 28, Mr. Schiff said.
Mr. Schiff said he could not speak about the reason for the delay. Hours after the meeting was pushed back, a document was filed, and then deleted, under seal in the criminal case against Mr. Cohen brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. The court’s docket did not contain any details about the nature of the document. A later notice said the document had been “incorrectly filed in this case.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump railed Wednesday against the idea of Mr. Schiff pursuing an investigation into his finances.
“Under what basis would he do that? He has no basis to do that,” Mr. Trump told reporters, when asked about Mr. Schiff’s plans. “No other politician has to go through that. It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.”
“He’s just a political hack trying to build a name for himself,” the president added in the Roosevelt Room after announcing his new nominee to be World Bank president.
Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment, as did Lanny Davis, an attorney for Mr. Cohen.
The intelligence committee also voted Wednesday to send Mr. Mueller the transcripts from the panel’s earlier Russia investigation. Republicans ended that probe in March, concluding there was no evidence of conspiracy or collusion between Russia and Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Democrats strongly objected at the time, saying the move was premature.
Since then, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone have been charged with lying to the panel. Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to the House and Senate intelligence committees about his role in a Trump business proposal in Moscow. He acknowledged that he misled lawmakers by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016 when he actually continued pursuing it for months after that.
Mr. Stone pleaded not guilty to charges last month that he lied to the House panel about his discussions during the 2016 election about WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy group that released thousands of emails stolen from Democrats.
Mr. Stone is also charged with obstructing the House probe by encouraging one of his associates, New York radio host Randy Credico, to refuse to testify before the House panel in an effort to conceal Mr. Stone’s false statements.
Mr. Schiff has said Mr. Mueller should consider whether additional perjury charges are warranted.
The committee had already voted to release most of the transcripts to the public, but they are still being reviewed by the intelligence community for classified information.