House intel panel releases final report on Russian election interference, marking end of its politically charged probe

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) (2nd L) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) leave the committee’s secure meeting rooms in the basement of the U.S. Capitol House Visitors Center February 6, 2018 in Washington, DC.

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released its final report on Russian election meddling, marking an end to the fraught political battle over the investigation.

The final report elaborated on the findings and conclusions made public last month by the committee’s Republican majority.

The committee found that there was “no evidence” of collusion or coordination between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin. The summary also said that the committee agreed with a number of the intelligence community’s prior judgments on the matter, “except with respect to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump.”

The March report received a strong response from the Democratic minority, including ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said the probe had been shut down too early.

Committee Democrats, Schiff said at the time, would continue to investigate with or without the Republican majority.

In a statement accompanying the Friday release, Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said the final report gives Americans “the opportunity to access the information used to draw the conclusions found in last month’s findings and recommendations.”

However, he lamented the number of redactions made to the report by the intelligence community, or IC.

“I am extremely disappointed with the overzealous redactions made by the IC,” Conaway said, explaining that some of the blacked-out information is already publicly available.

“When we started this investigation, we set out to give the American people the answers to the questions they’ve been asking and we promised to be as transparent as possible in our final report. I don’t believe the information we’re releasing today meets that standard,” he said, vowing to challenge the redactions in the future.