House Democrats to see intelligence documents soon

PanARMENIAN.Net - Congressional intelligence committee Democrats said on Tuesday, April 4 they would soon be allowed to view documents at the center of a political firestorm surrounding the investigation of possible links between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, Reuters reports.

Representative Adam Schiff, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, said documents that officials at the White House provided to the panel's chairman, Republican Devin Nunes, would be made available to all the members of his committee and their Senate counterparts.

"This action is long overdue and follows an inexplicable series of events in which the White House played a role in selectively and surreptitiously providing the documents to our chairman," Schiff said in a statement.

"If the White House had any concerns over these documents, or any other documents, they should have provided them to our committee weeks ago," he said.

Congressional committees and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating what U.S. intelligence has concluded were attempts by Moscow to influence the U.S. election in Trump's favor. They are also looking at links between Russia and Trump. Russia denies such allegations.

Trump and his allies have mounted an aggressive defense. Most recently, they have focused on unsubstantiated reports that Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama's national security adviser, disclosed the names of Trump aides swept up by surveillance of foreign targets.