The Senate Intelligence Committee will soon wrap up its investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia, and those claiming the two parties colluded may be in for a rude awakening, according to a new report.
NBC News, citing Democrats and Republicans, reports the panel’s two-year investigation has yet to uncover “direct evidence” of “conspiracy” between Trump campaign officials and the Kremlin. However, the report claims lawmakers are at odds “along party lines when it comes to the implications of a pattern of contacts” members of the two parties had before and after the Democrat National Committee’s emails were hacked.
“If we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don’t have anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia,”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told CBS News last week.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told CBS News last week.
“We know we’re getting to the bottom of the barrel because they’re not new questions that we’re searching for answers to,” he added.
Several unnamed Democrat lawmakers told NBC News that while they concur with Burr’s statements, they lack the appropriate context. “We were never going find a contract signed in blood saying, ‘Hey Vlad, we’re going to collude,’” a Democrat staffer told the news outlet.
President Donald Trump on Sunday welcomed Burr’s statements, tweeting: “Senator Richard Burr, The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, just announced that after almost two years, more than two hundred interviews, and thousands of documents, they have found NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA! Is anybody really surprised by this?”
Democrat investigators believe it will take up to 7 months to write its final report on their investigation and claim they may not even reach a conclusion as to whether collusion occurred.
Burr has signaled this is a reality he and other Republicans are prepared for. “What I’m telling you is that I’m going to present, as best we can, the facts to you and to the American people,” he said. “And you’ll have to draw your own conclusion as to whether you think that, by whatever definition, that’s collusion.”
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