‘No Trump-Russia collusion,’ House committee says

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have reached a conclusion in their investigation, saying they have found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Republican Mike Conaway (pictured above) said the committee agreed with US intelligence agencies that Russia had worked to interfere in the election.

However, Conaway appeared to preempt the findings of special council Robert Mueller's investigation into the affair by saying there was no proof that anyone from the Trump campaign assisted with that interference.

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“We found no evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it colluded with the Russians,” Conaway said, adding that the worst they had found was “perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment at taking meetings.”

Separate, concurrent investigations by Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee remain underway.

Ranking Democrat on the committee, Adam Schiff, called the investigation “fundamentally incomplete”, and accused Republicans of overt partisanship to shield Trump.

“The [Republican] Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country,” Schiff said.

Trump wrote on Twitter that he had been vindicated in his ongoing denials of collusion during the campaign.

The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher says that while the investigation by the House Intelligence Committee may be coming to an end, “the political warfare is just getting started.”

A 150-page draft report, which the Washington Post says was completed “without any input from Democrats”, will be shared with Democrats later today. However, it could be some weeks before the report is made public.