House

Intel Dem: Congress needs to speak with one voice on how Russia interfered

by Olivia Beavers - 01/03/18 9:39 AM ET

CNN's Alisyn Camerota: Is Chairman Nunes blocking Democratic House Russia investigation efforts?

Rep. Jim Himes: "I don't want to go that far … I hope that he drops this third installment of distraction" https://t.co/GR5O6Snlxa https://t.co/ZXUuN76RrD

— New Day (@NewDay) January 3, 2018

A senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is calling on Congress to submit a comprehensive report about Russian interference in the 2016 election amid tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the future of the probe.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Wednesday that there needs to be a compromise because Democrats on the panel are still eager to interview other key witnesses, while Republicans are looking to start the process of winding down the investigation.

“I hope we can go back to Washington next week and say it’s in everybody’s interest, including in Donald Trump’s interest, that we get one solid, comprehensive report finished,” Himes told CNN’s “New Day.”

{mosads}

“I am sure it is going to mean that the Democrats want to see more witnesses than the Republicans are seeing, but that should be something we can negotiate because it’s very much … in everybody else’s interests to get one solid, comprehensive report where the Congress is speaking with one voice on what Russia did to us,” he continued.

Himes said this week that Democrats are considering releasing a minority report detailing ways GOP members on the panel attempted to impede the probe.

“If the investigation gets wound up too quickly, the minority report would be largely about outstanding questions that were never examined,” Himes told Greg Sargent, a liberal columnist for The Washington Post, in an interview published Tuesday.

“It’s in both the Democrats’ and the Republicans’ interests to … write a report based on a common set of facts,” Himes told Sargent. “It would be a tragedy if the report has a minority section that says, ‘Look, we wanted to talk to these two dozen witnesses and weren’t able to do so.’”

His remarks come after Democrats on the committee voiced concerns that Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and the Republican majority are trying to prematurely cut off the panel’s investigation.

The Connecticut lawmaker on Wednesday emphasized on CNN that he does not “want to go that far.”

In a report by The Washington Post on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter said Democrats are frustrated Nunes has withheld his unilateral subpoena power and refused to seek dozens of interviews and records that the minority has repeatedly requested.

“I don’t want to go so far as to say he’s blocking us. We do have a list of people we still believe we need to interview, work that needs to be done, and this investigation should not be ended when there’s significant open questions,” Himes said on CNN.

Democrats are interested in talking to a series of other witnesses including Donald Trump Jr. and Attorney General Jeff Sessions again, both of whom appeared before the committee earlier this year.