But the majority report said that the intelligence case for attributing the email theft to Russians was “significant” and that it had found “no credible evidence,” including in still-classified intelligence reports, supporting the alternative theory of “an insider.”

Pro-Trump Statements Are Portrayed as Credible and His Opponents With Skepticism

The Republican report was often skeptical in tone about statements and testimony by people who put forward information that could be damaging to Mr. Trump, and more credulous about statements in his favor. For example, when discussing Mr. Steele, the Republican report uses suspicious terms, like saying he “claimed” to have obtained his allegations from “purported” high-level Russian sources. But when discussing testimony by witnesses who explained away various meetings with Russians, the report instead presents what they said with neutral terms, like “stated,” or uses words connoting the idea that they were acknowledging a truth.

One example of that concerns testimony by Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Trump campaign officials and Russians. He wrote in an email to Donald Trump Jr. that the visitors wanted to provide damaging information about Mrs. Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” But Mr. Goldstone later told Congress that he had no evidence supporting that statement, saying he had embellished his email with inaccurate information to get a response. The report says Mr. Goldstone “admitted” this exonerating account.

An Attack on Leaks, and James Clapper

The Republican report is scathing about leaks to the news media that have brought to light various information about Trump-Russia contacts. Against that backdrop, it declares that James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, gave “inconsistent testimony” about his discussions of the so-called Steele dossier with Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor. (Many news outlets had copies of the dossier but did not report on its existence because they were unable to verify its contents. But in January 2017, CNN reported that intelligence officials had briefed Mr. Trump, then the president-elect, about the dossier, and BuzzFeed published it shortly after.)

The Republican report said that Mr. Clapper initially denied discussing the dossier with journalists but subsequently “acknowledged” having discussed it with Mr. Tapper and “admitted” possibly talking about it with other reporters, too. The Democratic report portrays this passage as written to “smear” Mr. Clapper with a “dark insinuation,” saying it promotes a “narrative that former Obama administration officials, such as Clapper, leaked classified or sensitive information to the media.” The Democratic report notes that the dossier was not classified.

It also provides an excerpt from a transcript of Mr. Clapper’s testimony. It shows that he was asked whether he had discussed the dossier or intelligence related to Russia with journalists and replied “no.” But then, asked whether he confirmed or corroborated the dossier’s contents to Mr. Tapper, Mr. Clapper acknowledged discussing the dossier with Mr. Tapper but said that was “when it was out all over the place.” The transcript is ambiguous about whether that meant they discussed it before or after CNN reported the briefing.