House files on Russia coming
Panel votes to release transcripts from its probe
WASHINGTON — The House intelligence committee voted Friday to release transcripts of more than 50 interviews it conducted as part of its nowclosed investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Among those to be released are interviews with President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller.
The committee also will release dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and numerous Trump associates, including Roger Stone, currently the subject of a grand jury investigation.
The move to release the materials by the committee chairman, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a close Trump ally, will provide the public with 53 transcripts spanning thousands of pages of raw testimony as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his Russia investigation.
But not all the interviews conducted by the committee are being released.
Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff of California, protested that Republicans who control the panel wouldn’t vote to set a specific timeline for the release, once the transcripts go through a declassification process with intelligence agencies and are scrubbed for personal in- The decision by GOP Rep. Devin Nunes’ committee will provide the public with 53 transcripts. formation.
“They’re trying to bury them as long as they can” while making a pre-election show of transparency, Schiff said.
Democrats also wanted some of the transcripts sent to Mueller, asserting that some of the witnesses appeared to give false testimony. Schiff said Republicans also rejected that
Dismissing Schiff’s complaint, Jack Langer, a spokesman for Republicans led by Nunes, said “it’s amusing to see the Democrats continuing to promote their never-ending chain of absurd conspiracy theories.”
The interviews form the basis for the GOP-authored report released this year that concluded there was no coordination between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian efforts to sway the election. Committee Democrats, who voted against approving the report, have disputed its findings.
They say the investigation was shut down too quickly and that the committee didn’t interview enough witnesses or gather enough evidence.
Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who led the investigation in place of Nunes, said he “wanted to declassify or release as much of the underlying data as we could so that not only would they have my conclusion, but they could look at what I was looking at to make up their own mind.”
But Schiff said some of the most important transcripts — six in total — are still being withheld.
The withheld transcripts include separate interviews with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has attracted attention for his pro- Russian statements, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who headed the Democratic National Committee when court papers say its computer systems were hacked by Russia.
Conaway said those transcripts were withheld as a “professional courtesy” extended to members of Congress who participated in the interviews with the understanding they would be confidential.
Democrats say Wasserman Schultz has agreed to the release of her transcript. On Friday, Rohrabacher told The Associated Press that he hasn’t objected to the release of his. Asked if he would agree to its release now, Rohrabacher said, “I’ll think about it.”
Also withheld are transcripts of closed hearings with former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers as well as the transcript for the committee’s business meeting when GOP members approved their final report.