Story highlights After a chaotic couple of weeks, the House intelligence committee is taking steps toward calm

The panel is meeting Thursday and is investigation Russian meddling into the US election

(CNN) "We're into a new phase of the investigation."

That's House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes explaining earlier this week why he's not talking any more about the House's chaotic, dual-pronged investigation into Russia meddling into the US election, a probe that came perilously close to running off the rails, but appears to have possibly found its way again after some soul-searching and some cooling down.

House investigators will meet one more time this week -- Thursday morning -- before heading out of Washington for a two-week break.

One week ago the House investigation was on life support -- the butt of late-night television jokes with each new revelation about Nunes' coordination with the White House to reveal intelligence they said proved that Trump's aides were picked up in intelligence collection.

Top Democrats said Nunes, R-California, had jeopardized the credibility of their entire inquiry into Russian interference in the US elections and must recuse himself, a pair of hearings was canceled -- with each cancellation the subject of its own mini-drama -- and Senate investigators even wrote off the House operation as a "sideshow" and a "circus."