GOP lawmaker says panel is ‘poison’

WASHINGTON » Partisan sparring over the Russia investigation is causing chaos on the traditionally bipartisan House intelligence committee — with the panel now planning to build a wall to separate Republican and Democratic staff who have long sat side by side.

A senior Republican on the committee, Florida Rep. TomRooney, said Thursday that he thinks the committee is “poison” right now, characterizing partisan tensions as a total breakdown on committee that could have national security concerns. Rooney is one of the leaders of the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign was involved.

“The level of trust is just gone,” Rooney said, adding that “certain things definitely suffer,” like how to fund and conduct oversight over intelligence agencies.

Rooney said he was discouraged that only three or four members of the committee attended a recent national security briefing on a “very sensitive issue abroad that that we have been following for years” as lawmakers publicly debated their differences over a GOP memo that criticized methods the FBI used to ob- tain a surveillance warrant on a onetime Trump campaign associate.

The plan to divide the Republican and Democratic staff comes as members of the two parties have publicly been at odds, first over the panel’s ongoing investigation into Russia and more recently over Republican investigations into the FBI and Justice Department. A committee official confirmed the plan to separate staff, characterizing the move as bringing the panel into line with most other committees in the House where majority and minority staff use different offices. The official declined to be identified because the committee’s op- erations aren’t public.

Much of the tension has been between the Republican chairman of the panel, California Rep. Devin Nunes, and the committee’s top Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, who have been chiding each other since launching the Russia investigation together last year.

Schiff said dividing the two staffs would be a “terrible” mistake.

He disputed Rooney’s account that the committee’s other work is suffering, noted the panel has recently passed bipartisan bills to renew intelligence programs. Schiff said he believes the panel has so far been able to “compartmentalize.”