With no firm conclusions yet on whether US President Donald Trump’s election campaign might have coordinated with Russia, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence could delay answering that question and issue more bipartisan recommendations early next year on protecting future elections from foreign tampering.
Recommendations on how to counter the threat from attempted election hackers could be the first written product from congressional committees examining Russian interference into last year’s election that put Trump in the White House.
An early bipartisan report could be an attempt to boost confidence in the panel’s probe, as lawmakers worry that other issues could be lost if they are not able to agree on the most anticipated questions such as collusion.
A new poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows more than half of Americans have expressed skepticism about multiple congressional investigations, with just 13 percent saying they are very or extremely confident they would be fair and impartial.
There has been concern from both Democrats and Republicans that if members cannot agree, the final report would be dismissed by an already skeptical, partisan public.
“The more bipartisan it is, the more it will be believed,” said Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, of a final report.
Warner has worked closely with the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr, who said on Wednesday in an interview that he is considering an early report, which could also include other areas of consensus among senators.
A final report addressing collusion would come later next year.
Despite hesitation from Trump on the issue, most members of US Congress agree with intelligence assessments that the Russians interfered in the election.
There also is consensus on the need to tighten voting security after the US Department of Homeland Security notified several states of attempts to hack their systems.
Next year’s congressional primaries begin in early spring.
“We would have an additional report, if not more, but I think it’s reasonable to believe we could take everything that we have concluded, if we’ve got buckets we’ve concluded, election security recommendations being one of them, why wouldn’t we finish those and push them out the door?” Burr said.
Warner agreed.
“The idea of trying to get recommendations out early in the new year around elections, where I think there is very broad consensus, makes a lot of sense,” Warner said.
The committee, along with the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, since early this year has been investigating the Russian interference and whether Trump’s campaign was in any way involved.
That question of collusion might not be definitively answered at all in US Congress, as lawmakers are unlikely to agree on it.
Burr said the panel has started broad organization of a final report, but suggested the final product is more likely to be a series of findings, rather than a firm conclusion on whether there was collusion.
He said committee members would likely lay out the facts, “but from a standpoint of taking a vote on some list of conclusions, I’m not sure we’re going to do that.”
It is unclear whether the reports could be pre-empted in any way by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is also investigating the interference and has the ability to prosecute, unlike US Congress.
Mueller’s probe has moved rapidly, and his investigators have finished interviewing current and former White House officials they had initially requested to speak to, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said on Thursday.
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