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After 18 months, 300,000 documents reviewed, and hundreds of interviews, the bi-partisan House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence announced Monday it found “no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” as its Russia investigation comes to a close.
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who has led the committee’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election, announced that the panel had completed a more than 150-page draft report, with its initial findings and recommendations.
“We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” the committee said in a statement Monday.
“We didn’t find any evidence of collusion and I don’t think [Mueller] will either,” Conaway said on “Special Report.”
The committee’s investigation was based on four topics: Russian active measures against the 2016 U.S. election, the U.S. government’s response to the attack, links between Russians and the Trump and Clinton campaigns, and purported leaks of classified information.
“We believe we’ve got the information necessary to answer those for the American people,” Conaway said.
The report also noted that based on its investigation which lasted more than a year, the committee disagreed with the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “supposed preference” for then-candidate Donald Trump.
It is not known how the official Congressional investigation results will affect the Mueller investigation. After 18 months, hundreds of staff and millions of dollars spent, the Mueller investigation has yet to draw a link between Trump and Russia. Indictments thus far have been over financial issues of those near the Trump campaign but before they were involved int he campaign itself. Outgoing FBI director James Comey had stated before a Congressional panel that he had not found any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians.
Many democrats seem keen to end the investigation because of the recent evidence that evidence presented to get warrants for the FBI were gained by using information provided by the Clinton campaign and its donors. Something that is unprecedented when appearing before a FISA court to obtain search warrants.
Democrats had held out hope that there would eventually be indictments injurious to the president and Republicans in the Fall mid-term elections. Now, that does not seem at all likely.
