The House Intel Committee has released their final report on their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and it vindicates Trump on any alleged collusion, as Trump was quick to point out:
Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018
Benjamin Weingarten agrees with Trump’s assessment, tweeted this about the report:
House Intel Cmte’s #Russia report confirms what’s been made clear for months — the collusion conspiracy theory is a fraud perpetrated on the American people to try to undermine and ultimately destroy a presidency https://t.co/tiMDKjmmrm pic.twitter.com/ZVeh1bMcaz
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) April 27, 2018
But considering this is from the House intel committee, you can find plenty of naysayers out there as well.
Here’s what the Washington Examiner had to say about the report:
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released their final report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on Friday, and have concluded that there was no “collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.”
The release wraps up a yearlong probe that was often marred by bipartisan fighting.
“The Committee found no evidence that President Trump’s pre-campaign business dealings formed the basis for collusion during the campaign,” the report says. “There is no evidence that Trump associates were involved in the theft or publication of Clinton campaign-related emails, although Trump associates had numerous ill-advised contacts with Wikileaks.”
The report did cite “poor judgment and ill-considered actions by the Trump and Clinton campaign.
“For example, the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer who falsely purported to have damaging information on the Clinton campaign demonstrated poor judgment,” the report explained. “The committee also found the Trump campaign’s periodic praise for and communications with WikiLeaks — a hostile foreign organization — to be highly objectionable and inconsistent with U.S. national security interests. The committee also found that the Clinton campaign and the DNC, using a series of cutouts and intermediaries to obscure their roles, paid for opposition research on Trump obtained from Russian sources, including a litany of claims by high-ranking current and former Russian government officials. Some of this opposition research was used to produce sixteen memos, which comprise what has become known as the Steele dossier.”
The report found that Russia “conducted cyberattacks on U.S. political institutions in 2015-2016.”
It also said the FBI did not adequately notify Russian hacking victims, and “the Executive Branch’s post-election response was insufficient.”
The report includes a section on “leaks” by the intelligence community.
You can read (or skim) the entire report below for yourself if you want to draw your own conclusions: