Russian Meddling In U.S. Elections: U.S. House Committee Concludes Probe, To Say ‘No Collusion’

Republican leaders part of a bipartisan investigation committee looking into possible collusion between Donald Trump and Russia during the run-up to the U.S. 2016 presidential elections have concluded their investigation. Republicans on a House panel have found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin in the elections but agreed with US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the race.

Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who has led the year-long probe, announced on Monday the House committee had finished interviewing witnesses and planned to share a draft report with Democratic colleagues on Tuesday.

"The bottom line: The Russians did commit active measures against our election in 2016, and we think they will do that in the future," he told reporters. But he added: "We found no evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it colluded with the Russians."

Donald Trump reacted to the announcement through his favourite medium – Twitter. The U.S. President announced the committee’s findings in all caps in his tweet. He said, “The House Committee after a 14 month long probe found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia…”

The decision was met with sharp criticism from Democrats, who maintain that there are still scores of witnesses the committee should call, and argue that Republicans have failed to use subpoenas to obtain documents and require witnesses to answer questions that are central to the investigation.

While the committee did not interview President Trump, it interviewed some of his closest aides, including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and most recently White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.

According to the CNN, the committee is widely expected to issue two competing reports: one from Republicans that concludes no evidence of collusion was found, and another from Democrats that argues a case for collusion, as well as spells out all the avenues the committee did not investigate.

There are still two committees in the Senate that are investigating Russia's 2016 election meddling. The Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller are currently carrying out their own separate investigations into Russian meddling and possible collusion during the 2016 election.

As the committee concludes its investigation, the findings give more ammo to Donald Trump to claim his innocence while further dividing the political discourse as Republicans claim ‘no collusion’ while democrats claim ‘collusion and cover-up’.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 13, 2018 10:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).