House Republicans Say There’s No Evidence of Russian Collusion in Trump Campaign
WASHINGTON — The Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee said that they have found “no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” while Democrats say that the investigation has been shut down prematurely.
In an outline of a draft report released on Monday, the committee gave a glimpse of some of its findings, which challenge even the assessment of intelligence agencies that Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred Donald Trump to win the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton.
According to the outline, the draft report will contain “concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment’s judgments, except with respect to Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump.” It also will examine “how anti-Trump research made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign; and Problematic contacts between senior Intelligence Community officials and the media.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the Republican majority ended the investigation prematurely.
“By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly,” Schiff said in a statement. He said that the committee’s work ended “leaving questions unanswered, leads unexplored, countless witnesses uncalled, subpoenas unissued. If Russians have leverage over the President, GOP has decided that it would rather not know.”
The report does recognize Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, and will make more than 25 recommendations, including ways to improve election security.
“After more than a year, the Committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee.
The draft report will be released to Democrats on the committee on Tuesday.
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