"The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues," President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump says GOP should 'finally take control' of Russia investigation

President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans in Congress to "take control" of the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting some head-scratching from a top GOP investigator on Capitol Hill.

"The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues," Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. "There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!"


Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he didn't know what the president meant.

“I don’t know what the president has in mind, and I don’t think I better comment until I have a discussion with the president on that,” Grassley said, when asked by reporters.

Then Grassley added: “And I don’t intend to have a discussion with the president on that point, and I hope he doesn’t call me and tell me the same thing that you said he said.”

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Trump's tweet about GOP "control" of the investigations came the day after the top Democrat on Grassley's committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) unilaterally released the transcript of a closed-door interview with a key witness in the Russia probe, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.

Grassley said that he hoped Feinstein's decision didn't mark the beginning of a partisan breakdown, adding that he'd recently shown his commitment to cooperation by agreeing to two interviews that Democrats had requested.

Feinstein made her own efforts to heal any potential rift, telling reporters Wednesday that she intended to apologize to the Iowan "because I wanted to talk to him first" before releasing the transcript. "I just got pressured, and I didn't do it," she said. "So I owe him an apology, and I will give him an apology as soon as I see him."

Feinstein later walked that back a bit: "I was not pressured."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a judiciary panel member who had asked Grassley to release the transcript before Feinstein did so, said he hoped the tension her decision sparked might ultimately help jump-start the committee's Russia investigation.

"It might break the ice. It might be a defining moment," Blumenthal said in an interview. "But the fact is that [Feinstein] acted well within her authority."

Feinstein had said she wasn't consulted before Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recommended that the FBI pursue a criminal investigation against former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, the author of a disputed Trump-Russia dossier for what they described as evidence that he made false statements to federal investigators.

Beyond the jostling among Judiciary Committee members, Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have faced questions about whether Trump has pressured them to wind down their Russia investigations.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) confirmed recently that Trump called him and raised the subject last spring but hasn't contacted him about it since.

"It was not a recent thing," the Senate intelligence committee's chief told reporters last month.

Asked about Trump's tweet on Wednesday, the intelligence panel Democratic vice chairman, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, warned that it "smacks of interference in investigations."

"I think it's inappropriate, and I think these investigations need to go through," Warner told reporters.

