Intel panel no longer pursuing details surrounding Comey memos

The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced Wednesday they will no longer pursue details surrounding the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation. 

“This topic has been hotly debated and the committee is satisfied that our involvement with this issue has reached a logical end as it relates to the Russia investigation,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the panel, said during a press conference.

{mosads}The committee appeared to leave any further probing of the Comey memos to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading an independent investigation on behalf of the Justice Department.

“Questions that you might have surrounding Comey’s firing are better answered by the general counsel or by the Justice Department, not the Select Committee of Intelligence in the United States Senate,” Burr continued.

Burr caveated that they are not closing the door on investigating the memos entirely, saying that the panel has explored every detail and interviewed every witness available to them at this time.

“Now again, this is not something that we have closed, but we have exhausted every person we can talk to get information that is pertinent to us relative to the Russia investigation,” he told a room of reporters.

Comey authorized “a close friend” to leak the contents of his memos to the press after his dismissal, in order to prompt a special counsel investigation into what he found were the president’s attempts to influence his investigations into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other branches of the Russia investigation.

The former FBI chief testified before the Intelligence panel in June. 

The announcement comes at a time when Mueller’s investigation also appears to be picking up steam as it issues requests that the White House turn over documents and materials related to events of interests regarding Russia’s meddling.