WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday it is "absolutely unacceptable" that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election and urged congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller to get to the truth.

"I think it's very important that these professionals and these (House and Senate) committees do their jobs so that we can get to the bottom of all of this," the Wisconsin Republican told reporters at the weekly news conference held by GOP House leaders.

Ryan refused to answer a question about whether he would have accepted a meeting with intermediaries of the Russian government offering to provide negative information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has come under fire for revelations first reported by The New York Times that he met with a Russian attorney in June 2016 after being promised information that could damage the Clinton campaign.

"I'm not going to go into hypotheticals," Ryan said. He added that Mueller and House and Senate investigative committees need to "follow these leads wherever they may go and follow the facts."

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The House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee are investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Mueller, former director of the FBI, is conducting a criminal investigation in his role as special counsel. He was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Ryan also said he believes the House will pass a bill imposing strong sanctions against Russia in response to its interference in the U.S. election last year.

The Senate last month voted overwhelmingly to enact new sanctions against Russia and make it difficult for Trump to lift them. Those sanctions were aimed at expanding the list of businesses and individuals who are blacklisted from doing business in the U.S. and punishing anyone who conducts cyber attacks against the U.S. on behalf of the Russian government. The sanctions would also apply to anyone supplying weapons to the Syrian government, which is backed by Russia.

Efforts to pass the legislation in the House have bogged down in part because Democrats say Republicans are trying to water down congressional oversight and give Trump greater authority to lift the sanctions.

"I'm a Russia hawk," Ryan told reporters. "I believe in strong, bold Russia sanctions. We want to move this Russia sanctions bill."

He said GOP leaders are negotiating with Democrats over both procedural issues and substantive issues, including making sure that lawmakers "don't inadvertently help Russian oligarchs and oil companies."

"We want to get this done and get this fixed and get this moving as soon as possible," Ryan said.