The House intelligence committee voted Wednesday to send more than 50 interview transcripts from its now-closed Russia investigation to the special counsel Robert Mueller.

The panel's new Democratic chairman, California Rep. Adam Schiff, has long said that sending Mueller the transcripts from the probe into Russian election interference would be one of his first actions.

Among the transcripts that would be released would be interviews with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks.

The House Intelligence Committee has voted to send more than 50 interview transcripts from its now-closed Russia investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller.

Republican Reps. Michael Conaway of Texas and Chris Stewart of Utah said the panel backed sending the transcripts to Mueller during a closed-door session Wednesday. It is unclear if the special counsel requested the documents.

The panel's new Democratic chairman, California Rep. Adam Schiff, has long said that sending Mueller the transcripts would be one of his first actions. Two associates of President Donald Trump have already been charged with lying to the committee, and Schiff has said Mueller should consider whether additional perjury charges are warranted.

Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and a longtime adviser, Roger Stone, have been charged with lying to the panel.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California. Win McNamee/Getty Images

As is tradition, the committee met behind closed doors. A notice for the meeting said one of the agenda items is "transmission of certain committee transcripts to the Department of Justice."

Read more: Trump said 'you have to get rid of' the Russia probe and parroted a Kremlin talking point in a wide-ranging interview

The vote comes the morning after Trump criticized "ridiculous partisan investigations" in his State of the Union speech. Schiff has indicated that he will re-open parts of the committee probe that Republicans closed last March, concluding there was no evidence of conspiracy or collusion between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. Democrats strongly objected at the time, saying that the Republicans prematurely closed the investigation.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, leaves federal court after his sentencing in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. Associated Press/Craig Ruttle

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to the House and Senate intelligence committees in a statement about his role in a Trump business proposal in Moscow, acknowledging that he misled lawmakers by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016 when he actually continued pursuing it for months after that.

Cohen, who is scheduled to begin serving a three-year prison sentence in March, was scheduled to return to the House panel on Friday for another closed-door interview, this time with Democrats leading the questioning. But Schiff said Wednesday morning that the interview had been postponed to Feb. 28 "in the interests of the investigation."

Schiff did not say whether he was referring to Mueller's investigation or his own. Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland declined to elaborate, and Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined comment.

Read more: Trump took a veiled jab at the investigations into him during his State of the Union address — and some are drawing a Nixon parallel



Since he testified in 2017, Cohen has turned on the president, cooperating with Mueller's probe and a separate investigation in New York. He was charged with crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs and told a judge that he agreed to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."

Roger Stone, longtime political ally of US President Donald Trump, flashes a trademark Nixon victory gesture as he departs following a status conference in the criminal case against him brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller at US District Court in Washington, US, February 1, 2019. Jim Bourg/Reuters

Stone pleaded not guilty to charges last month that he lied to the House panel about his discussions during the 2016 election about WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that released thousands of emails stolen from Democrats. Stone is also charged with obstructing the House probe by encouraging one of his associates, New York radio host Randy Credico, to refuse to testify before the House panel in an effort to conceal Stone's false statements.

Mueller requested Stone's interview transcript last year and the panel voted to release it in December, ahead of the January charges.

Democrats had previously pushed the GOP-led committee to release all of the transcripts to Mueller, but Republicans said Mueller hadn't requested them. The committee did vote to release most of the transcripts to the public, but they are still being reviewed by the intelligence community for classified information.

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks walks on the tarmac after the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 26, 2018. Reuters/Carlos Barria

It is unclear if Mueller has since requested any other transcripts, or if he has already seen any of them. It is possible that Mueller could have gained access to the documents through the intelligence agencies that are reviewing them.

Republicans on the intelligence panel issued a joint statement just before the meeting saying that the intelligence agencies' ongoing review is "an unacceptable delay" and Democrats should vote to publish all of the unclassified transcripts immediately. It was not immediately clear if Democrats would be willing to do that.

Among the transcripts that would be released would be interviews with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks; and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller. There are dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and Trump associates.