House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Wednesday that Republicans are just “going through the motions” of the investigation into Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign.
“They would ask very conclusionary questions … and when they said ‘no,’ the Republicans were content to leave it at that,” Schiff told CNN. “That’s not conducting an investigation, that’s going through the motions.”
Democrats say they want to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller on the Russia probe, but claim that chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., won’t let them.
“They certainly do what they can to make it difficult for us,” Schiff told CNN. “They not only don’t want to hear what the Trump campaign knew about Russian possession of the stolen emails, but they don’t want us to know either.”
Schiff and other Democrats on the committee say they want to share transcripts of their witness interviews with Mueller because they worry that testimony may have been untruthful. However, Republicans told CNN that they don’t see why they should participate in the Democratic investigation when they feel it is unneeded.
“There’s a difference between a real investigation and a fake investigation fueled by a desire for people to get on television,” said committee member Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio.
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who led the Russia investigation after Nunes temporarily stepped down from running the prove last year, said that he agrees with the way the chairman has decided to run the process.
“It’s not their money. It’s the committee’s money,” Conaway said. “Devin runs that process, and I’m backing Devin’s decisions.”
Nunes refuses to give Democrats the finances to fly witnesses to Washington, D.C. to conduct witness interviews and isn’t allowing them the committee resources for space for the interviews and transcription services.
Democrats say they had to rely on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to pay for an outside transcription service and utilize her office to conduct interviews. One instance was with interviewing Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie in April, and another time on Wednesday when the panel interviewed Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos.
