The top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee signaled differences Monday on whether intelligence investigators have determined whether President Donald Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russians, as they laid out the boundaries of their own investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the US elections.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said he has not yet seen any evidence of coordination, but did not rule out the possibility. But Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, said, “The committee has reached no conclusion on whether the Trump campaign has colluded with Russia.”
Schiff noted that he and his fellow Californian have been briefed by the same intelligence officials on their investigations.
High-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials told CNN earlier this month.
Nunes said he was asked by the White House to call a reporter after The New York Times first reported on contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians, but he downplayed the request.
“We still have not seen any evidence that anyone from the Trump campaign, or any other campaign for that matter, has communicated with the Russian government,” Nunes said Monday.
“There is no evidence that I’ve been presented of regular contact with anybody within the Trump campaign. The only one that’s obvious is Gen. (Michael) Flynn’s discussions with the Russians, which I would still contend that he was doing what he was supposed to do, which was prepare the President-elect for office by getting as many leaders in front of him as possible,” he said.
Trump has personally intensified his attacks on the press as the steady stream of articles about Russian ties to his campaign have emerged. Behind the scenes, White House officials sought help from the men overseeing two of the congressional investigations: Nunes and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, according to a recent Washington Post report.
But Nunes beat back reports that he was enlisted by the White House to refute the Times reporting, saying: “That didn’t happen.”
Democrats, however, have latched onto the report. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he was putting Burr “on notice, because what he did was wrong and this is not the way to conduct a fair, impartial investigation.”
And Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said, “I think all of us have to be careful to not create a perception that the White House has any role in this investigation.”
Nunes, a California Republican, reiterated that he wants to uncover who leaked transcripts of Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador, which ultimately led to Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser.
“We’re very interested in figuring out who those people were because they have questions to answer as to what laws did they use to decide to unmask Gen. Flynn,” Nunes said.
Schiff said he agreed to investigate the leaks but did not want that to be the main focus of the committee’s work.