House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Tuesday said that members of Congress have not seen evidence yet to support reports that associates of President Donald Trump were in contact with Russian officials before the election.
“We have seen no evidence so far based upon the investigations that have already been conducted,” Ryan told reporters when asked if he was confident that Trump aides were not communicating with Russian officials.
Ryan said that he did not want to talk about ongoing investigations, and that the House Intelligence Committee was still working on its investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election.
The speaker’s comments echoed those made by the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), on Monday.
During a lengthy press conference on Monday, Nunes repeatedly defended the Trump administration and said that he has not yet seen evidence of communication between Trump associates and Russian officials, as was reported by the New York Times earlier in February.
“The intelligence agencies have not provided me or the committee any information about those three Americans communicating with Russians,” Nunes said.
Asked if the intelligence community has come to a conclusion on on the matter, Nunes said, “The way it sounds like to me is, is it’s been looked into and there’s no evidence of anything there.”
