The Senate Intelligence Committee will use 'subpoenas if necessary' to investigate the Trump dossier

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Senate Intelligence Committee launched a bipartisan investigation Friday evening into the unverified dossier on President-elect Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia and will use "subpoenas if necessary" to get testimony from the Trump team and relevant members of the Obama administration.

"[W]e believe that it is critical to have a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States," said a joint statement from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee's chair, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair. "The committee will follow the intelligence wherever it leads," they added. "We will conduct this inquiry expeditiously, and we will get it right."

Burr and Warner indicated that the investigation will be open to the public "when possible," but they "will be conducting the bulk of the committee's business behind closed doors because we take seriously our obligation to protect sources and methods." Trump continues to deny the legitimacy of the entire dossier, maintaining that it is a smear campaign intended to undercut his presidency. The Kremlin has also denied the reports.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.