GOP lawmaker: Panel probing Russia is ‘poison’

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Partisan sparring over the Russia investigation is causing chaos on the traditionally bipartisan House intelligence committee – with the panel planning to build a wall to separate Republican and Democratic staff who have long sat side by side.

A senior Republican on the committee, Florida Rep. Tom Rooney, said Thursday that he thinks the committee is “poison” right now, characterizing partisan tensions as a total breakdown on committee that could have national security concerns.

Rooney is one of the leaders of the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign was involved.

“The level of trust is just gone,” Rooney said, adding that “certain things definitely suffer,” like how to fund and conduct oversight over intelligence agencies.

Rooney said he was discouraged that only three or four members of the committee attended a recent national security briefing on a “very sensitive issue abroad that we have been following for years.”

He said the sparsely attended meeting came at the same time lawmakers were publicly debating their differences over a GOP memo that criticized methods the FBI used to obtain a surveillance warrant on a onetime Trump campaign associate.

The plan to divide the Republican and Democratic staff comes as members of the two parties have publicly been at odds, first over the panel’s ongoing investigation into Russia and more recently over Republican investigations into the FBI and Justice Department.