House Intel votes to release most Russian probe interview transcripts
The House Intelligence Committee has voted to release most of the transcripts of witnesses interviewed over the course of its year-long Russia investigation, which ended in a bitter partisan dispute last March.
Republicans on the panel concluded at the time there was no evidence to suggest the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election and cited some shortcomings in the intelligence community's tradecraft. Democrats issued dissenting minority views and vowed to write their own report at the conclusion of a unilateral investigation they have since continued.
The more than 50 transcripts – including with high-profile witnesses like Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, Hope Hicks and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose closed-door testimonies drew intense scrutiny and speculation – will now be sent to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a classification review. It is unclear how long such a review will take, though several thousand pages of documents are expected to be released.
Immediately following the committee's vote, Democrats accused Republicans of selectively withholding some transcripts – including of interviews with sitting congressional members Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, and of those with former agency heads James Comey, Admiral Mike Rogers, and John Brennan.
"Clearly they are concerned with the public seeing certain transcripts," Ranking Member Adam Schiff, D-California, told reporters after the vote.
Schiff also said Republicans rejected several motions the minority made during the committee's meeting on Friday morning intended to speed up the transcripts' release. He told reporters Republicans voted against measures to have unclassified transcripts – which, he said, made up "90 percent" of the materials being considered – made public immediately. Republicans also denied a move to immediately send unredacted transcripts to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Schiff said.
Republicans "have no wish to assist in the Russia investigation by either our committee or the Special Counsel, and apparently wish to protect those witnesses who may have lied to protect themselves or the President," the California Democrat said in a subsequent statement. Schiff indicated that Democrats had also, without success, renewed requests to subpoena documents related to some witnesses' testimonies.
A spokesman for the committee's majority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who led the committee's investigation after Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, temporarily stepped aside amid ethics concerns, said the transcripts for Rohrabacher and Wasserman Schultz were being withheld out of "professional courtesy."
"It's really rare that a member testifies like that, and we just want to maintain confidentiality," he said.
He said transcripts of the former agency heads were from hearings not part of the investigation itself. "What we're releasing is executive session material," Conaway said.
Of the timing of the release, the Texas Republican told CBS News, "We've had six months now or so for the report to sit out there. Now's as good a time as any."
Democrats had insisted for months on the public release of the committee's transcripts, which they claimed would undermine the Republicans' own conclusions. Nunes, who ordered Friday's business meeting, began signaling that the transcripts would be released earlier this month, telling Fox News they needed to be published before the midterm elections in November.
Conaway expressed confidence that the transcripts would bolster Republicans' findings. "I think [the public will] come to the same conclusion we did, that we found no evidence of collusion," he said.
Schiff indicated that the Democrats' investigation was ongoing, and that transcripts of interviews the minority conducted with Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie and with Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, wife of former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, would be released at a later date.
He said the minority would "take a look" at the findings of the special counsel and the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own investigation into Russia's interference in 2016.
"There is further work to be done," he said.
