USA TODAY International Edition
House intel Republicans end Russia probe, find no collusion
But panel does find cyber attacks
WASHINGTON – Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee called an end on Monday to their year-long investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, concluding that there was “no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
The probe was ended over the objections of Democrats, who charged that key documents and testimony still have not been obtained.
Republicans said they agreed with the U.S. intelligence community’s January report that Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, but did not agree that the Russians were trying to help Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The GOP majority on the House panel will show its draft report to Democrats on Tuesday before seeking approval from the full committee to release it. Democrats plan to write a separate report that likely will conclude there is strong evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
The investigation’s abrupt end underscores the bitter partisan divide that has plagued the committee’s work. And it increases pressure on the collegial Senate Intelligence Committee to come out with a credible bipartisan report from its own Russia probe.
“The House Majority has announced it is terminating the Russia investigation, leaving to others the important work of determining the full extent of Russian interference in our election, the role of U.S. persons connected to the Trump campaign in that intervention, possible efforts to obstruct the investigation by the President and most important, what needs to be done to protect the country going forward,” Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House panel, said in a statement Monday night.
Ending the investigation at this time is “another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch,” Schiff said.
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who led the investigation for the House Republicans, said the panel conducted 73 witness interviews, held nine hearings and briefings, and reviewed more than 300,000 documents.
“We are confident that we have thoroughly investigated the agreed-upon parameters, and developed reliable initial findings and recommendations.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have been warning that Republicans were going to end the investigation prematurely, without calling dozens of important witnesses to testify and without forcing many of those who testified to answer crucial questions.
“At the outset of the Russia probe, both parties committed to a thorough investigation that would follow the facts wherever they lead,” Schiff has said.
Instead, he said, Republicans declined to subpoena witnesses to compel them to answer key questions after witnesses refused to do so in voluntary, closed-door appearances before the committee. Among the witnesses who refused to answer crucial questions: Donald Trump Jr., Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and former White House communications director Hope Hicks.
When former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon refused to answer questions even after being subpoenaed, Republicans would not take action to hold him in contempt of Congress, Democrats said.
Schiff said Republicans have refused Democrats’ requests to subpoena documents that could verify or refute witness testimony.
The committee’s bipartisanship began unraveling in the spring of last year, when Chairman Devin Nunes, RCalif., took a secret trip to White House grounds to review information gathered by unnamed sources purporting to show that President Trump was under surveillance by the Obama administration during the 2016 campaign.
At a news conference after his trip, Nunes told reporters that he had discovered evidence to support the president’s claim that he was wiretapped at Trump Tower. Yet the Justice Department confirmed in September that there was no evidence that Trump Tower was targeted for surveillance.
Nunes temporarily stepped aside from the Russia investigation last April when the House Ethics Committee announced it was investigating whether Nunes violated any laws or rules by disclosing classified information. The Ethics Committee closed its investigation in December.
The committee’s partisan split grew deeper in February, when Republicans released the “Nunes memo” alleging that the FBI and Justice Department abused their surveillance authority to target Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016.
Democrats denounced the Nunes memo as an attempt by Trump and House Republicans to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. They released a rebuttal memo a few weeks later.
In addition to investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee has conducted a limited probe and is not expected to issue a final report.