US lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee are expected to vote on Friday on whether to release the transcripts of more than 50 interviews they conducted as part of their investigation into alleged Russian election meddling.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) US lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee are expected to vote on Friday on whether to release the transcripts of more than 50 interviews they conducted as part of their investigation into alleged Russian election meddling.
The vote, which was scheduled by House Intelligence Chairman David Nunes, will pave the way for the possible release of transcripts of closed-door interviews with senior Trump administration associates and officials between June 2017 and March 2018, a notice released by the committee said.
The officials interviewed include White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.
The transcripts would not be immediately released after Friday's vote. According to the committee's notice, the transcripts would instead first be sent to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where they would undergo a classification review before being released.
After resisting earlier calls from Democrats to make the transcripts public, Nunes said in a recent Fox news interview that the documents should be released before the midterm elections in November.
"We believe that the depositions that we took ... those need to be published and they need to be published I think before the election," Nunes said on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" earlier this month.
The House Intelligence Committee conducted a yearlong Russia investigation, interviewing dozens of witnesses and combing through more than 300,000 documents.
In April, the committee wrapped up its probe and issued a final report, saying they found no evidence of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump's campaign team. The report - which was endorsed by the committee's Republicans and disputed by its Democratic members - also cast doubt on the earlier findings of the US intelligence committee regarding alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
Russia and Trump have repeatedly denied allegations of collusion, and Moscow has refuted charges of interfering in US internal affairs, calling the accusations "absurd."
