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Did Russia seek to throw the election to Donald Trump through hacking and leaks, as the CIA says? Don’t look to congressional Republicans for answers—they’re really not interested in investigating this one. Since even a partisan as hardened as Mitch McConnell finds it difficult to say “I don’t want to know and I don’t want the public to know,” top Republicans have to express concern about the allegations … but the real question is what they say they want to do about it, and the answer there appears to be “not much.” The Republican plan that’s emerging is to do little if anything different, but claim that the House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating hacking by other nations, have been investigating it all along, and are right on top of this particular issue.
On Monday, McConnell told reporters that the Senate Intelligence Committee “is more than capable of conducting a complete review of this matter.” It quickly became clear the Kentucky Republican was not necessarily ordering any kind of formal review aimed at producing a final report — like the one that resulted in the committee’s 2014 investigation of the Benghazi attacks — but was simply calling on the committee to continue its ongoing probe on the issue.
“The committee's ongoing oversight captures exactly what the leader described,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in a follow-up email.
Meanwhile, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr issued a statement suggesting his panel isn’t launching any kind of new wide-ranging probe, but was just planning to continue the oversight work it is already doing.
As in the Senate, so in the House. Speaker Paul Ryan issues a statement mentioning only ongoing work done by the House Intelligence Committee, and hours later, Devin Nunes, the chair of that committee, says he won't be doing any extra investigations. They’re on it already, they say. No need for anything extra, never mind that apparently—according to the CIA—the congressional committees missed something big. The upshot?
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