House Speaker Paul Ryan says congressional intelligence committees should be left in charge of investigating Russia’s cyberactivity during the 2016 election.
“The proper place, in my opinion, is the intelligence committees because they’re the ones who have access to methods of intelligence gathering,” Ryan told reporters at the White House Monday afternoon.
The Wisconsin Republican had been asked to weigh in on Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who suggested over the weekend that the Justice Department appoint a special prosecutor to investigate ongoing questions about Russia’s hack-and-release operations and alleged contacts between Moscow and aides to President Trump.
“This is sensitive information that involves how we collect intelligence. That is why we have an intelligence committee that goes through the clearance process, that gets access to that information, and which is conducting an investigation,” Ryan said.
“Both of our intelligence committees have been investigating all of these issues,” he added.
Issa is the only Republican lawmaker so far who has called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations involving correspondence between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
