Key moments from the House Intelligence Committee's Russia hearing

The House Intelligence Committee on Monday held a much-anticipated hearing featuring FBI Director James Comey’s first Capitol Hill appearance since President Donald Trump’s bombshell allegations that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower.

The gathering was also the first public hearing in the Intelligence Committee’s ongoing investigation into Russia’s alleged interference during the presidential race, and whether the Trump campaign had any ties to Moscow during that time. U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Kremlin deployed its hackers in an attempt to destabilize the 2016 election, and eventually to try and help Trump win the White House.


Below are highlights from the hearing, which included testimony from Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers.



Comey confirmed the FBI is investigating Russia’s meddling in the presidential election, including possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Comey described it as a “counterintelligence investigation” but said it will “also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.” He noted that the FBI usually does not comment on active counterintelligence investigations, but he said he was authorized to do so in this case because of the extraordinary public interest. Comey declined to comment on questions about which specific Trump aides were being examined.

Comey said the FBI probe began in late July, meaning it was occurring at the peak of the presidential race. July was also one month after the Democratic National Committee revealed that suspected Russian hackers had infiltrated the organization's systems. But lawmakers weren't notified of the probe until the past few weeks, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Comey declined to put a timeline on how long the investigation would ultimately take. But, he cautioned, “for a counterintelligence investigation, that’s a short period of time.”

Comey also shot down Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in the run-up to the election. "I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," Comey told the committee. He added that the Justice Department had also looked for evidence to support the president's allegation and could not find any. Comey said a president cannot unilaterally order a wiretap.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the panel’s top Democrat, delivered an unusually long, 15-minute opening statement in which he walked through a thorough timeline of Russia’s digital meddling campaign against the U.S., going back to 2015. He then detailed the various public reports of meetings between Russian officials and Trump aides. "Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence?" Schiff asked. "Yes." But, he added, "it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated." Lawmakers, Schiff said, "owe it to the country to find out."

Speaking directly to Comey, Schiff asked for the cooperation and help of his department. "What you see on the dais … is all we have to commit to this investigation," he said. Schiff has expressed concerns about the FBI withholding information on its Russia probes from Capitol Hill but recently said the relationship is improving. "We cannot do this work alone. Nor should we," Schiff said. The California lawmaker then renewed his call for an independent commission to help investigate Russia's actions in the 2016 election, similar to the outside, bipartisan commission that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Such a panel would serve as "an important complement to our efforts," Schiff said.

Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), who chairs the Intelligence Committee’s NSA subpanel, grilled Rogers about the recent leak of a phone call between ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and a top Russian diplomat. The call was picked up during routine foreign surveillance, but the contents — and Flynn's identity — were exposed despite laws that normally mask the identities of Americans swept up by foreign eavesdropping. Rogers declined to comment on even a “hypothetical” situation in which such an incident could occur, though he said there are 20 people at his agency with the power to reveal that information, including himself. The admiral added that others in the intelligence and law enforcement communities, including Comey and the attorney general, would have the authority.

Rooney pressed Rogers on whether the leak of Flynn’s name hurts U.S. national security. The NSA chief strongly agreed. Rooney then voiced concerns that the Flynn leak would hurt efforts to reauthorize the powerful digital spying tools authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expires at the end of the year. Rogers said letting the surveillance programs expire would “significantly” impact the “insights” he needs to run his agency.

More broadly, GOP lawmakers repeatedly hammered the witnesses about the damage that leaks of classified information are causing. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) twice used his time to ask questions about leaks, pressing Comey whether it was legal for reporters to publish classified information, such as Flynn's phone call. "Is there an exception in the law for reporters who want to break a story?" Gowdy asked. Comey said that such a question is one the Justice Department has struggled with for decades. "I don't think a reporter has been prosecuted" for publishing classified information "during my lifetime," Comey said. But, he conceded, the only way the media would have gotten the details of Flynn's private communications is because "someone told them who shouldn't have told them."

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Comey defended the intelligence community's January conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin eventually wanted to help Trump win the election. Comey said Putin was partly driven by his disdain for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “I think that was a fairly easy judgment for the community," he said. "Putin hated Secretary Clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much.”

Nunes pushed back on the assessment. He asked the witnesses, "Don’t you think it’s ridiculous for anyone to say the Russians prefer Republicans over Democrats?" Comey and Rogers refused to speculate about Moscow's broader party preference but conceded there had not been similar assessments done in the previous two elections to determine whether Moscow wanted the GOP candidate to prevail. Rogers noted, however, that the classified version of the January report includes some analysis on the topic.

Comey and Rogers predicted that Russia would launch similar cyberattacks on future U.S. elections. “They’ll be back," Comey said. "They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018." He said it’s “possible" that Moscow is "misreading" its success sowing doubt and discord in the U.S. and thinking, "It worked. And so we’ll come back and hit them again in 2020.’” Rogers agreed, arguing the Kremlin would "continue this level of activity” because his agency has concluded the Russians believe their digital meddling “generated a positive outcome for them” by calling “into question” the Democratic process.

Rogers said his organization is helping European allies with upcoming elections, such as France and Germany, protect themselves against Russian tampering. He said the NSA has already seen disinformation, “fake news” and attempts to release information designed to embarrass candidates.

"There’s a whole lot out there that’s false," Comey told lawmakers when pressed about anonymous leaks that have fueled some of the media's coverage of possible ties between the Trump camp and Russia. While the FBI chief didn't offer specifics, his remarks spoke to an allegation several Republicans made during the hearing: The press is spreading falsehoods. Comey said inaccuracies may be coming from "people who act like they know when they don’t know." But the FBI can't risk correcting the record, he explained, for fear of accidentally commenting on ongoing investigations or classified information.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) asked Comey whether it was possible that a "so-called source" for a journalist covering the subject "may actually be a Russian advocate." Comey would say only: "In general, sure. Someone could always pretend to be someone they're not."

Trump weighed in on the hearing in real time, sending out several tweets from his official White House account. “The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process,” he tweeted with a video clip. But later in the hearing, when Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) read the tweet aloud, Comey and Rogers both took issue with the characterization. Comey said it was not “our intention” to say that Russia’s actions had no impact. “We've offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact, because that's not something we've looked at," Comey said.

Intelligence panel leaders urged Comey to investigate the Trump campaign's role in molding the GOP party platform. Democrats have long trumpeted reports that Trump aides helped kill a provision that would have supported giving arms to Ukraine to help fight Russia. During the hearing, they argued that such actions, if true, raise questions about possible collusion with Moscow. Nunes challenged the narrative, insisting that any edits actually made the platform "stronger." Trump's campaign has also denied any hand in the edits. But Schiff said he still has lingering concerns about the incident, and he joined with Nunes in calling on the FBI to examine the matter. "The committee would certainly like to know," he said. "We welcome that inquiry."