Before the House Intelligence Committee even finished its interviews, Republicans had already written their summary of results.
We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
That may seem incredible. Because it’s incredible. But over the weekend, the erstwhile leader of that committee had a simple explanation for how Republicans could make such a statement in the light of all the public and private evidence.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said Sunday the House Intelligence Committee was not tasked with investigating collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, despite the committee issuing a report last week stating it found no evidence of collusion in the 2016 election.
“Our committee was not charged with answering the collusion idea,” Conaway said on NBC's “Meet The Press.”
"So we really weren’t focused on that direction."
It’s much easier to not find collusion, if you don’t bother to look for collusion. You can expect the committee to also report that it didn’t find the truth behind dark matter, the burial place of Jimmy Hoffa, or where Paul Ryan stores his spine. Most people might be surprised that figuring out if there was collusion involving the Trump campaign wasn’t part of what the House investigation was about. In fact, most people probably thought that was all it was about. But Conaway did come back to “clear up” his earlier statement.
A spokeswoman for Conaway said he "meant obstruction" rather than collusion.
As in … they didn’t look for that, either.
Conaway took over the supposed leadership of the committee after Devin Nunes semi-recused himself from the job following the first of his disastrous attempts to turn the investigation into an attack on President Obama. However, behind the scenes Nunes maintained control. He blocked Democratic subpoenas for phone records, emails, or texts that might have indicated whether witnesses were telling the truth, as well as quashing calls for 57 other witnesses.
Nunes was also the chief author of the “summary.” Which Conaway may have forgotten to read.
