The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee vowed to thoroughly assess the intelligence community’s conclusions on Russian election interference Wednesday, steering clear of the controversies plaguing their House intel counterparts.
The committee is examining Russian attempts to influence the 2016 elections, along with contacts U.S. campaign officials may have had with the Russian government, Chairman Richard Burr told reporters.
Their probe features a review of the intelligence community’s January conclusion on election interference. The report assessed that Russia waged a cyber and disinformation campaign to discredit Hillary Clinton, help Donald Trump’s campaign, and undermine faith in the democratic process.
Burr said seven staffers were reviewing thousands of documents to verify the process by which those conclusions were obtained, as well as the confidence ratings attached to those conclusions.
“When you see a movie, it’s roughly two hours. When you see how much film went into a movie, it’s probably 50 hours,” Burr said. “We don’t want to just look at what was in the report. We want to look at what was cut and thrown on the floor, either in analytic product or in intelligence, to figure out whether an analyst made the right determination with what we know today.”
The committee has made 20 requests for interviews with witnesses and five are already scheduled, Burr said. Lawmakers will interview Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner, he confirmed. Kushner reportedly organized meetings with the Russian ambassador and a Russian bank executive.
He also suggested that the committee has spoken with former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who resigned in February after misleading the vice president about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
The chairman would not get ahead of the investigation when asked about potential coordination between the Trump team and Russia, something his House counterpart has said he has seen no evidence of.
“We would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation,” Burr said. “Mark and I have committed to let this process go through before we form any opinions.”
As to leaks, a central issue for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, Burr said that the committee by default probes such matters.
“The normal course of business for the intelligence committee is about leaks,” he said. “We will try to assess leaks if they take place during the investigation in the same way.”
He added that, preliminarily, he has not seen evidence of surveillance violations by intelligence officials.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes has raised concerns about the potential abuse of surveillance for political purposes. His committee is investigating leaks of classified information, including those that precipitated Flynn’s resignation, as part of its Russia probe.
Democratic lawmakers have called for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation due in part to his close relationship to the Trump White House. Nunes was a member of Trump’s transition team.
Burr admitted Wednesday that he voted for Trump. He said he would prioritize his professional responsibilities over his personal opinions.
“I’ll admit that I voted for him,” he said. “But I’ve got a job in the United States Senate and I take that job extremely seriously. It overrides any personal beliefs that I have or loyalties that I might have.”
“Mark and I might look at politics differently. We don’t look at the responsibilities we have on the committee differently,” he said.
Warner then placed his hand on Burr’s shoulder.
“I have confidence in Richard Burr that we, together with the members of our committee, are going to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
Nunes has also drawn fire for refusing to reveal his source for controversial allegations he made related to incidental collection and unmasking on Trump transition team members.
Burr and Warner laughed off the suggestion that they would be divided on sharing sources.
“He usually knows my sources before I do,” Burr said and smiled.
“And let me assure,” Warner quipped, “I’ve also got his cell phone, which means he hears from me more than he’d sometimes like.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold its first related public hearing Thursday featuring cybersecurity experts and experts in Russian foreign policy.
