Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are reversing course on their promise to make public transcripts of witness testimony from their now-closed Russia investigation.
The panel’s top Republicans had said for several months that they planned to release the transcripts. But Representative Michael Conaway of Texas, who has been leading the investigation, said things had changed.
“We may not be able to do that, turns out,” he said in an interview, adding that he had been persuaded that such a move could discourage future witnesses from testifying before the committee.
Conaway’s reversal came Monday night, just after he announced the committee had found no evidence of collusion with Russian operatives by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, triggering angry condemnation from Democrats.
As recently as March 5, when Conaway was asked whether he planned to release the transcripts, he replied, “Absolutely.”
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Back in January, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes also said that committee Republicans planned to release all the transcripts when they issued their final report.
Committee Democrats say they will try to make the transcripts public after the intelligence agencies have reviewed them and redacted any classified information, but it is unclear if Democrats can proceed without the majority's approval.
“We intend to append to our report the complete transcripts of all the witnesses,” [Ranking Member Adam] Schiff said. “The majority has said they support making these transcripts public. We will put to the test of whether they really do.”
He said the transcripts would show that what Republicans called an investigation “was merely asking a witness, ‘Did you conspire with the Russians? Did you coordinate with the Russians? Did you collude with the Russians?’ And when the answer was no, they were content that was the end of the story. That is no way to conduct an investigation,” he said.
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According to the House Intelligence Committee, 73 witnesses have been interviewed by members and staff behind closed doors, including 54 sessions that were transcribed.
Schiff said Tuesday that committee Democrats will continue working on the Russia investigation. “Our work is far from done,” he said ...
On Tuesday, Republicans said their final report would be released in the coming weeks.
House Russia Probe Dissolves Into a Fight Over Transcripts (Bloomberg Politics)