Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are still informally investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin even after the body’s Republican chairman officially ended the panel’s highly partisan probe. | John Shinkle/POLITICO House Democrats seek to interview inflammatory 'alt-right' activist Chuck Johnson Johnson says he will not cooperate with the toothless Democratic effort, but may have no choice if the House changes hands in the November midterms.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have asked to interview Charles Johnson, a controversial self-described "alt-right" activist, as part of their probe of 2016 Russian election interference, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

House Democrats continue to informally investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, even after House Intelligence Committee Republicans ended their panel’s highly partisan official investigation.


The Democratic effort is mostly toothless because it relies on voluntary cooperation. But if Democrats take the House in November, they will gain subpoena power and be able to compel testimony from Johnson and other witnesses.

The Democratic lawmakers want information about Johnson’s work with Republican activist Peter W. Smith during the 2016 presidential campaign to obtain emails allegedly hacked from Hillary Clinton, according to the Monday letter from Shannon Green, a Democratic staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Those efforts reportedly involved contact with people who purported to be Russian hackers in possession of emails stolen from Clinton.

Johnson, a right-wing journalist and provocateur, is well-connected among Republican donors and operatives but reviled by the left as a bully, and has been widely denounced for past comments posted on Reddit questioning the history of the Holocaust. He was banned from Twitter in 2015 over a comment the platform interpreted as a threat against a Black Lives Matter activist.

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Johnson told POLITICO he does not intend to comply with the request for a voluntary interview.

POLITICO first reported on Johnson’s work with Smith last July. Following the report, the Senate intelligence committee sought information and documents from Johnson about those efforts later that month.

Johnson initially refused to cooperate with the Senate probe. Johnson said he eventually spoke by phone with Democratic Senate intelligence staffer James Wolfe — who made headlines in June when he was arrested for allegedly leaking classified information to the press — but refused to turn over documents.

Smith died last May of an apparent suicide shortly after speaking with a reporter from The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the news of his failed quest to obtain Clinton’s emails.

So far, Simona Papadopoulos, wife of former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, and Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie, have testified to the Democrats on the committee.