House Intel Committee votes to release ‘Russiagate’ transcripts
The House Intelligence Committee has voted to release transcripts from its own investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The transcripts include testimony from key Trump campaign figures.
The committee voted Friday to release the 53 documents, which will first go to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) for review and classification. Among the documents are testimonies from Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Roger Stone.
In addition, the documents include transcripts of interviews with a host of Obama administration officials, such as former DNI James Clapper and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Certain transcripts, like those of interviews conducted with former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, will not be released.
The interviews were conducted earlier this year as part of an investigation that found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the runup to the 2016 election. The committee’s findings vindicated the Trump team, but angered Democrats, who saw the investigation as partisan and incomplete.
“While the Committee found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government, the investigation did find poor judgment and ill-considered actions by the Trump and Clinton campaigns,” the report read.
With the documents send to the DNI’s office for review, it could be days or weeks before their release to the public. House Democrats had clamored for the declassification before November’s midterm elections, as the move looks set to resurrect the ‘Russian collusion’ narrative once more.
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