Politics

Senate Intel Chair Says Russia Probe Won’t Be Ending Anytime Soon

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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said the panel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election will be going well into 2019.

Burr said, in an interview with Bloomberg released Friday, he believes the committee’s Russia probe would easily take as long as “six months,” as the committee plans on interviewing a number of other witnesses. The committee will also need to gather all of its information it will declassify in order to release a final report.

Burr’s colleague on the committee, Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, has called for public hearings with the witnesses involved in the committee’s probe. However, Burr said he disagrees, saying he does not think it is necessary.

“I don’t see the need for public hearings,” Burr said in the interview. “I don’t see that happening.”

Warner has previously suggested that Americans are losing patience with the special counsel’s investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia. “I think the American public will be tired of it if this is not wound down in this calendar year,” he said in May during an interview at CodeCode.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign is still open, but he has reportedly started writing his report.

The investigation started on May 17, 2017. The Senate Intelligence Committee has had its probe open since January 2017.

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