The issue of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the U.S. presidential election last year is still open, Richard Burr, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said. According to him, the committee is still investigating whether there was meddling. “The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion. I’m not even going to discuss initial findings because we haven’t any,” Burr said.
Burr said the panel has confirmed the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies – that Russia had interfered in the election – but that one portion of the investigation has not yet closed. Intelligence officials have always been unambiguous about the hacking of the emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Burr said that the committee is close to reaching a definite conclusion on the significance of the alleged April 2016 meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Seven witnesses that have attended a foreign policy speech by Trump have been interviewed. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee signaled that they know everything they need to know about the firing of FBI Director, James Comey.
“The committee is satisfied that our involvement with this issue has reached a logical end as it relates to the Russia investigation. This is not something that we’ve closed, but we have exhausted every person that we can talk to to get information that’s pertinent to us, relative to the Russia investigation,” Burr said.
He added that investigators hit a wall during the review of a dossier that contained incendiary allegations about Trump and Russia. Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele wrote the so-called “Steele dossier”, but he has rebuffed the requests for interview.
“My hope is that Mr. Steele will make a decision to meet with either Mark and I or the committee, so we can hear his side of it versus for us to depict in our findings what his intent or what his actions were. I say that to you, but I also say it to Chris Steele,” Burr said.
He sent a message to future witnesses to cooperate and warned that the committee will not hesitate to use its power. Burr wants the Russia investigation to conclude by the end of 2017. Since the beginning of the investigation, over 100 witnesses have been interviewed and thousands of documents have been collected. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, will also testify before the committee in an open session next month.
“When we started nine months ago, I saw three buckets. Today, I talked about five or six. I didn’t dream them what it would expand to — I can’t predict what witnesses will share with us that might lead us in a different direction,” Burr said.
Be the first to comment