"Speaker Ryan has said for months that foreign intervention in our elections is unacceptable,” Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said in a statement to POLITICO. | Getty Ryan stops short of call for Russia probe In a statement, the speaker 'rejects any politicization' of the issue but does not join senators demanding a congressional investigation.

Speaker Paul Ryan “rejects any politicization” of intelligence matters regarding Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections, his office said Sunday. But the Wisconsin Republican stopped short of calling for a congressional investigation into the CIA’s conclusion that Russia attempted to skew the election toward Donald Trump.

"Speaker Ryan has said for months that foreign intervention in our elections is unacceptable,” Ryan’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said in a statement to POLITICO. “The speaker cannot comment on or characterize the content of classified briefings but he rejects any politicization of intelligence matters."


The statement puts Ryan in the middle of a brewing war between lawmakers who want Congress to conduct a full-fledged probe of Russia’s interference — and the president-elect and top Trump officials who’ve downplayed and even rejected the explosive findings.

The Washington Post reported Friday that a CIA investigation concluded that Russia's hacking was aimed at tipping the scales in favor of Trump, as opposed to simply seeking to undermine the American democratic process.

Trump's team immediately dismissed the CIA assessment, saying it came from "the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." Trump himself on Sunday called the reports of Russian interfering on his behalf "ridiculous."

But numerous lawmakers from both parties have pushed back on Trump’s dismissal of the issue. On Sunday, four senators — including top Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — called for a congressional investigation into the matter.

Ryan’s office would not say whether he believes House committees, including oversight and intelligence panels, should investigate the matter.

The speaker has taken a hard line on Russia in the past. At an early September news conference, just after Trump had defended Russia from accusations that it was meddling in the election, Ryan called Vladimir Putin “an aggressor that does not share our interests.”

Strong also noted in the statement that Ryan in September also “wrote to the states and urged them to enhance the cybersecurity of their election infrastructure.”