The White House over the past year "hijacked" the transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee's Republican-led investigation into Russia and delayed their release for months, current Chairman Adam Schiff said in a closed-door meeting last week.
When Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chaired the panel, the committee agreed to release transcripts from 53 witness interviews, reports Politico.
The documents were handed over to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for review, with Nunes saying he hoped they'd come out ahead of the 2018 congressional elections, but Schiff told his committee that the review didn't actually end until this March.
At that time, intelligence officials asked that the White House be allowed to review the transcripts and screen them for content containing executive privilege, a move Schiff said he opposed.
Since that time, Schiff said he and his staff have been in negotiations to keep the White House from screening the testimony, and after 10 months, negotiations are "at an impasse and our patience has been exhausted."
ODNI has returned 43 of the 53 transcripts, which have been redacted for classified information. Two others do not have classified information, Schiff said, but the other eight are still being held "hostage" and that is "simply unacceptable."
"The American people deserve to see the full picture and read these transcripts, many of which were used to support the committee's investigative report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, which was released to the public in March 2018," said Schiff.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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