WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee said Monday that the panel has found no evidence of alleged collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Republicans who dominate the panel are closing down the probe, with no plans for more interviews with witnesses. The panel in the process of preparing a roughly 150-page final report, said Republican house lawmaker Mike Conaway on Monday.
"We found no evidence of collusion," he told reporters. "We couldn't establish the same conclusion that the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump."
"We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings - but only Tom Clancy could take this series of inadvertent contacts, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a spy thriller that could go out there," he said, referring to the American novelist.
A draft of the final report will be delivered to Democratic committee members for review on Tuesday, local media reported. It is expected that Democrats may make "extensive changes" to the Republican-drafted report and likely issue their own version.
The House Intelligence Committee has reviewed more than 300,000 documents and interviewed 73 witnesses since launching the investigation in January 2017.
The witnesses include former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.