WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican lawmakers said on Wednesday they would vote on their report on the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election just 10 days after announcing they were wrapping up the probe.
The committee’s Republican leaders set a business meeting for March 22 to vote on adopting their report. Reflecting the deep partisan division on the committee, Democrats are working on a separate report of their own.
The Republicans – who control majorities in both houses of Congress, and thus every committee – posted the notice for the meeting a day after committee Democrats issued their own extensive list of areas they said still needed to be examined, pledging to continue their own examination.
Partisanship has marked the House panel’s investigation of allegations that Russia interfered in the U.S. election since it began more than a year ago. Democrats have accused Republicans of failing to rigorously investigate, and Republicans have accused Democrats of using the probe to score political points.
The controversy has raised doubts over the panel’s ability to discover what happened, including whether there was collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russians who sought to influence the campaign on his behalf.
Russia denies trying to influence the election. Trump dismisses any talk of collusion.
On Monday, committee Republicans announced that the panel has finished investigating Russia and the election, and found no collusion. But Democrats said they had seen ample evidence of collusion, and blasted Republicans for ending the probe.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Diane Craft)
