In the two years since the launch of the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of Russian election meddling, Democrats and Republicans have not found evidence that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia to win the White House, according to multiple reports.
The committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, told CBS News in an interview last week that as of Thursday, lawmakers had yet to find evidence of collusion.
“If we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don’t have anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia,” Burr told the news network.
Trump pointed to Burr’s comments Sunday, writing in a tweet that Burr “just announced that after almost two years, more than two hundred interviews, and thousands of documents, they have found NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA!”
Senator Richard Burr, The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, just announced that after almost two years, more than two hundred interviews, and thousands of documents, they have found NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA! Is anybody really surprised by this?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2019
However, The Associated Press reported Monday that Trump's characterization was "taking it too far," as the investigation is ongoing.
Burr’s comment last week was not an official declaration on behalf of the committee exonerating Trump of collusion, and the chairman suggested that its final report may not draw a conclusion.
"I'm going to present, as best we can, the facts to you and to the American people," Burr told CBS News last week. "You'll have to draw your own conclusion as to whether you think that, by whatever definition, that's collusion."
Unidentified Democratic Senate investigators told NBC News on Tuesday that while Burr's comments were true, they also "lacked context."
“We were never going to find a contract signed in blood saying, ‘Hey Vlad, we’re going to collude,’” an unidentified Democratic aide told the news network.
Several investigations into Trump, his administration and his 2016 campaign officials are ongoing, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and its possible ties to the Trump campaign.
Six Trump aides and 28 others have been charged since Mueller's investigation launched in 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cox Media Group
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