A Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that Democrats are eager to drag out the Russia probe because they think it could help them in the midterm elections.
Rep. Chris Stewart, Utah Republican, said he hopes the panel’s work on Russia could be wrapped up soon and blamed the vast majority of the news leaks on Democrats.
“I have heard the same question asked 15 different ways and at the end of the day, we have been looking at this for more than a year and I don’t know any reasonable Democrat who is still claiming there is evidence of collusion,” Mr. Stewart said.
Democrats say they want to keep the investigation alive because they want to hear more from Jared Kushner and a long list of others, including Donald Trump Jr. and Sam Nunberg.
“Our democracy was attacked and American people are going to measure us on what did we do to defend it and right now the Republicans seem willing to say we will do nothing,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, said this week.
On Wednesday, Mr. Stewart said the claim is “nonsense.’
“I think he is an example of one of these individuals who would like this to keep going, who’d like to keep telling this story [of] collusion and conspiracy and would love for that to happen through the midterms,” Mr. Stewart said.
Mr. Stewart said perhaps the evidence doesn’t support some of the accusations that have been leveled against people over Russian meddling.
“To be fair to the process, and to be fair to these people and the American people, let’s get a report out and tell them what we’ve know,” he said. “If something more comes up after that i think all of us would be willing to look at that additional evidence.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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