Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have admitted they didn’t look into collusion, or possibly obstruction, or maybe both. Democrats on the committee have detailed how Republicans consistently blocked access to witnesses, failed to use subpoena or citations when necessary, allowed witnesses to answer only questions they liked or even write their own questions, and refused to seek any documentary evidence that would contradict questionable testimony.
In an investigation supposedly about actions related to the Trump campaign and transition team, Republicans did not call: Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Stephen Miller, Sean Spicer, KT McFarland, George Papadopoulos, Sam Nunberg, Dan Scavino, Kellyanne Conway, Keith Kellog, or Reince Priebus. They didn’t call Aaron Nevins, a Republican consultant who openly worked with Russian intelligence to determine the most valuable stolen documents and sent that information to the Trump campaign. They didn’t call Natalia Veselnitskaya, who led the Russian delegation at the Trump Tower meeting, even though she had offered to appear. They didn’t call NRA officials, despite the $30 million they added to the Trump campaign or numerous contacts between that group and Russia. They didn’t bring in anyone from Cambridge Analytica, and settled for a video conference with CEO Alexander Nix, leaving Nix to laugh about how Republicans had only asked three questions and learned nothing.
Considering the people who didn’t appear, it wouldn’t be surprising that the House Intelligence Committee announced they found no evidence of a Trump campaign. And this is also not at all a surprise.
The Republicans have now released their report that expands on the summary they sent earlier by explaining just how thoroughly they didn’t find anything. And just how much they don’t like President Obama. But the key words, present even in Donald Trump’s tweet, are “no evidence provided.” Which is very easy to accomplish, when no evidence is sought.
“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."
What the House Republicans apparently believe they were charged to do, is give Donald Trump a pass. And that’s a very dangerous move. Since the Republicans put out their shorter version of the report—issued less than half an hour after they peremptorily announced the end of the investigation without consulting or even warning their Democratic colleagues—Donald Trump has been on a tear. The firings have come faster. The statements have been wilder.
If Trump has felt “newly emboldened,” as White House insiders have stated, it’s because not only did Republicans hand him a report he can wave around as if it exonerates him from any charges, but Paul Ryan provided clear signals that Republicans in the House were giving Trump a free pass.
What Trump has been emboldened to do, is directly attack Robert Mueller and the special counsel investigation.
The Republican refusal to investigate does more than just signal to Trump that there’s no danger of the House taking any action. The way that Paul Ryan personally issued snippets of the report, refused to hear Democratic complaints, and supported Devin Nunes both in issuing a partisan report and the “release the memo” memo over objections of the Justice Department and FBI, provides Trump a clear signal: The House will support him, no matter what.