Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski arrived Thursday for his second appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, as the panel’s Russia probe appears to be winding down.
Several Republican lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee have signaled the investigation will be done within the next month, over Democratic objections.
“I went on television and called for an end to House Russia investigation, not because I don’t think that there is still more information that we can gather from witnesses, but because the investigation has just completely gone off the rails politically,” Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said during a recent interview with the New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast.
But the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday morning that he wants witnesses that have been called to interview with special counsel Robert Mueller to also meet with the House Intelligence Committee. Among those witnesses include Erik Prince and Lebanese-American businessman Greg Nader.
According to reports, Prince, who founded the Blackwater security firm, may have misled the committee in previous testimony about a meeting he and Nader had in the Seychelles islands, and whether it was an attempt to set up a backchannel between the Trump administration and Russia.
“We have expressed the interest for some time now in being able to interview witnesses that are cooperating with the special counsel,” Schiff told reporters. “We’d obviously like to hear from George Papadopoulos, he has some very important testimony to offer.”
“Mike Flynn, also cooperating with the special counsel, [Rick] Gates is cooperating. We’d like to hear from all of those witnesses,” he added. “One of the reasons why this is so important is special counsel’s obligation is to find out what laws have been broken and decide who should be prosecuted. It’s not the special counsels’ job to tell the country what happened, that’s really our job.”
Lewandowski last appeared before the committee in January, but only answered questions about the time he spent on the Trump campaign. He appeared voluntarily on Thursday, and was not subpoenaed.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said on CNN Monday he expects Republicans to shut down the investigation within the next month.
A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who is leading the committee’s Russia investigation, did not respond to a request for comment.
