Trump-Russia investigation: House intelligence committee finds 'no evidence' of collusion in final report

The US Congress’ House intelligence committee has found “no evidence” of collusion between President Donald Trump and Russian officials in its final investigative report about whether Moscow interfered with the 2016 US election.

The approximately 250-page report is the culmination of the committee’s year-long investigation. However, the results are likely to be contested by Democrats on the committee who felt Republicans ended the investigation too early in order to help Mr Trump and the party ahead of the November 2018 mid-term elections. Ranking Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff had the same objections to the committee’s release last month of the preliminary findings and today said the conclusions are “superficial and [of a] political nature”.

Though the full report has blacked out portions deemed classified by the US intelligence community, the summary stated that the committee agreed with the intelligence community’s findings except for one crucial point: Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s supposed preference for candidate [Mr] Trump”.

Republican Congressman Mike Conaway said in a statement that the report’s release will give citizens ”the opportunity to access the information used to draw the conclusions found in last month’s findings and recommendations”. However, he said he was “extremely disappointed with the overzealous redactions” made by the intelligence community.

“When we started this investigation, we set out to give the American people the answers to the questions they’ve been asking and we promised to be as transparent as possible in our final report. I don’t believe the information we’re releasing today meets that standard,” he said.

Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell claimed in a statement that though the report concluded that there was no collusion, "Republicans never allowed the investigation to look for collusion". He said they "ran a ‘take them at their word’ investigation that showed no willingness to test witness testimony against their cell phone, bank, and travel records," adding that members have not followed through on their promise to release the transcripts so the public could "judge for itself".

Mr Trump immediately seized on the conclusions in the report summary and tweeted the campaign of opponent Hillary Clinton “paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!”.

The report also called for the end of the Logan Act, which stipulates that private citizens are not allowed to negotiate on behalf of the US unless authorised to do so. If repealed this could clear some Trump campaign members of possible violations of the act. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials while he was only a member of the Trump transition team, not a government employee as yet. Former campaign aide George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to the same type of offence.

The report indicated that since the Logan Act was passed in 1799, no one has been convicted of violating it.

Despite Mr Schiff's comment that the results in the report are "political," there was at least one conclusion that appeared to criticise equally. The report stated that both campaigns used "poor judgement" at times, particularly former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort - who was indicted as part of the probe, the president's son Donald Trump Jr, and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The reported cited the trio's Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, “who falsely purported to have damaging information on the Clinton campaign, demonstrated poor judgement".

“The Committee also found that the Clinton campaign and the DNC, using a series of cutouts and intermediaries to obscure their roles, paid for opposition research on Trump obtained from Russian sources, including a litany of claims by high-ranking current and former Russian government officials,” the report said. Some of that information was used to compile the now-infamous dossier written by former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele, which detailed alleged acts by Mr Trump on trip to Moscow in 2013 that involved prostitutes.

House intelligence committee Democrats, the Senate intelligence committee, and the US Department of Justice - through the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller - are all continuing to investigate the matter of alleged collusion. Mr Schiff said "to do otherwise would ignore our responsibility to conduct meaningful oversight and insure that the Russians do not possess leverage over the President of the United States".