The following article by Nicholas Fandos was posted on the Washington Post website December 15, 2017:
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee is racing to complete its investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, scheduling a host of witness interviews here and in New York for next week as Congress heads for its break, and, Democrats said, leaving other leads unfollowed.
Some of the most important witnesses are to be interviewed in New York by committee staff early next week, possibly leaving Democrats to choose between attending those depositions or voting on the massive tax bill coming before the House.
And in an indication that Republicans hope to wrap up their probe, the House committee has yet to schedule a single interview after the holidays, according to two committee officials familiar with the schedule. That has left Democrats fearful that the majority is trying to finish the investigative portion of its work by the end of next week, before the committee can connect the dots on one of the most serious efforts by a hostile foreign actor to hijack American democracy.
“I feel no need to apologize for concluding an investigation,” said Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, one of the Republicans leading the investigation.
Mr. Gowdy confirmed on Friday that he told a Democratic member of the committee, Representative Jackie Speier of California, that the end of the year offered a “natural boundary” to their work. But he contested the Democrats’ claim that Republicans were steering toward a preconceived conclusion and said interviews could still be scheduled for the new year, as warranted.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, said, “The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is conducting a thorough and professional investigation into Russian meddling and is following the facts wherever they may lead.”
Two Senate committees and a special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, also are investigating aspects of the Russian efforts, and those inquiries continue apace. But the developments on the House panel — and emerging recriminations between the parties — appear all but certain to ensure its investigation will end in dispute.
Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on Thursday that it was becoming increasingly apparent where Republicans were going.
“We’re departing from all of our practices. We’re departing from what’s in the best interest of the investigation in an effort to jam in every possible interview in December,” Mr. Schiff said. “And this looks like the House leadership capitulating to pressure from the White House and Steve Bannon.” He was referring to President Trump’s former chief strategist.
The New York interviews next week appear to have provided much of the tinder. The committee has scheduled sessions there with Rhona Graff, Mr. Trump’s longtime executive assistant, and Felix Sater, a Trump associate who boasted that he could help engineer a real estate deal with the aid of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that would help win Mr. Trump the presidency.
Democrats say the interviews are important to their work and will coincide with two key votes in Washington, on the tax bill and a year-end spending measure. They said the witnesses had made clear they would be willing to come to Washington at a later date.
Alexander Nix, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, the data firm that worked for the Trump campaign, was interviewed recently via video conference, with members of the House committee participating at a Washington law office.
“We continually are receiving hundreds of pages of documents on the very eve of interviews with witnesses,” Mr. Schiff said. “They are not following up on interviews that we’ve done. Our request to subpoena parties, even where they agreed the information was relevant, have gone without any action. And there are dozens of witnesses that we’ve been asking for months to bring in where the letters haven’t even gone out.”
Mr. Schiff said he had a list of at least two dozen witnesses whom Republicans have been unwilling to call. According to a committee official, that list includes employees of Cambridge Analytica, officials at the Trump Organization and Michael Flynn Jr., the son of Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser who last month entered a plea agreement with Mr. Mueller.
Democrats had also hoped several people at the center of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, such as Paul Manafort, its campaign manager, and Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser, would return for another round of questioning.
Democrats on the committee thought the indictment and plea deal by Mr. Flynn would buy them an additional six to eight weeks of time. It appears to have had the opposite effect, and Mr. Schiff’s decision to go public with his concerns was an effort to halt the Republicans, one committee official said.
The move to conclude the investigation quickly, Democrats argued, is not happening in isolation. A group of conservative House Republicans who are loyal to Mr. Trump escalated an attack earlier this week on the integrity and impartiality of Mr. Mueller. And the president himself has repeatedly called the investigative efforts — both by Mr. Mueller and Capitol Hill — a waste of money and a “witch hunt.”
“I think the Republican leadership in the House is under enormous pressure from Steve Bannon and others outside the building to prematurely close the congressional investigation,” Mr. Schiff said on Thursday. “After all, how can they ask Bob Mueller to shut down if the congressional investigations are still very much ongoing?”
It now appears increasingly certain, committee officials said, that the Democrats and Republicans will issue separate reports with substantially divergent conclusions about what role, if any, the Trump campaign had in the Russian meddling effort. And Democrats have not yet decided whether to try to carry on an investigation alone should Republicans pull out.
Mr. Gowdy said he was sympathetic to Democrats’ concerns over the heightened pace, but he put the blame on Mr. Schiff, who he said spent the early months of the investigation dragging his feet.
“I have done as many of these investigations as any member of Congress,” Mr. Gowdy said. “When one side or the other has no interest in starting, that is pretty clear and convincing evidence that they also have no interest in ending.”
“And now that we have picked up the speed, there are complaints about what they have asked us to do, which is interview witnesses,” he said.
Asked for comment on Thursday, Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, said, “Not a chance I’m ever going to talk to you.”
Representative K. Michael Conaway of Texas, who has headed the Republicans’ effort for much of the inquiry — while Mr. Nunes was under an investigation related to accusations that he improperly disclosed classified information — could not be reached for comment. He has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he hopes to conclude active investigative work “as soon as possible” and that it would take several months to pull together the committee’s findings.
Mr. Gowdy and Representative Thomas J. Rooney, a Florida Republican on the panel, said on Friday that they were unsurprised that the Democrats would cry foul. They said it was politically advantageous for the party to drag out an investigation to keep a cloud over Mr. Trump’s presidency, at least into the 2018 election cycle.
“After 10 months, it has not led anywhere,” Mr. Rooney said on Friday. “Basically, what Schiff would like to do is get into a criminal investigation and that’s not the purpose of our investigation.”
As for what Republicans have seen, Mr. Gowdy was unequivocal.
“If there is evidence of collusion, conspiracy coordination, with Trump and the Trump campaign, no one has produced it,” Mr. Gowdy said.
Matthew Rosenberg contributed reporting.
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