The Senate Intelligence Committee is expanding the scope of its investigation into Russian meddling, with panel leaders saying there is no end date in sight.

The panel is interested in questioning a lawyer who runs in the president's inner circle, looking into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, and determining whether the intelligence community's findings are fully correct and complete.



Here are the five main takeaways from the Wednesday presser:

1. Issue of collusion is still open

The panel leaders said they are still pursuing any leads and examining every shred of material to see if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race in an attempt to sway the outcome of the election.

“The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion,” Burr told a room of reporters.

“I’m not even going to discuss initial findings because we haven’t any.”

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The announcement comes after the panel met with a string of close associates of the president, including his son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner. Kushner attended a highly scrutinized 2016 meeting with a Russian government lawyer promising dirt on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE.

2. A muddled message on the intelligence community assessment

The chairman of the committee delivered a muddled message about his confidence in the intelligence community assessment issued during the Obama administration affirming Russian interference in the election.

Burr first expressed that the "general consensus" on the committee was trust in report.

"We feel very confident that the ICA's accuracy is going to be supported by our committee," Burr said.

But he was later careful to clarify that the committee has not yet reached a conclusion about the document's claim that Russia intervened to sway the election in favor of Trump. Russian efforts to "create chaos" were "indiscriminate" to either party, he said, leaving the door open in case any new findings disprove parts of the report.

President Trump has repeatedly pushed back on the intelligence community's findings, insisting that the agent behind the hacked Democratic National Committee emails could've been anyone: Russia, other foreign entities or someone working out of their basement.