Bannon and Lewandowski to testify in House’s Russia probe

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski are scheduled to testify this week in the House intelligence committee’s investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, and Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, are part of a schedule that Democrats fear is being engineered by Republicans eager to end the investigation as soon as possible. Their appearances are voluntary, and they’ll meet with the committee in private, said officials from both parties familiar with the committee’s schedule.

Congressional interviews also were being sought for next week with FBI officials and a former top Department of Justice official. Some of those are expected to occur before the intelligence committee, while others as part of a separate House investigation into FBI handling of the Hillary Clinton email case in 2016.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said Thursday that he fears Republicans are hustling to wrap up the Kremlin election interference investigation after 10 months — in his opinion, prematurely.

“Republicans want to conduct just enough interviews to give the impression of a serious investigation,” Schiff said.

Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of California and Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas, whom Nunes has assigned to lead the panel’s Russia investigation, haven’t said when the investigation might be finished. But Conaway has indicated that they don’t want to prolong the investigation much deeper into the midterm election year.

Bannon hasn’t testified to any of the three congressional panels looking into Russia election meddling.