WASHINGTON _ Tensions between the two leaders of the House investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia escalated Friday as the committee announced it would soon question President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters at a news conference that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has worked as a lobbyist for a Russian businessman and for a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician, had volunteered to be interviewed by the committee.
He said the panel would consult with Manafort's attorney on whether he would testify in public or private.
But Nunes also announced that the committee was canceling a planned public hearing with former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and two former Obama administration intelligence officials _ the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan.
The decision to cancel the hearing prompted the panel's top Democrat to accuse Nunes of seeking to avoid further bad publicity for the White House after a tumultuous week.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a separate news conference that he "strongly objected" to the cancellation of the hearing, calling it a "dodge" by Nunes to aid the White House.
Nunes apologized to the committee Thursday after abruptly announcing publicly that he had received information that Trump transition officials were inadvertently picked up on surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies and then briefing Trump on the information before sharing it with fellow panel members.
Calling Nunes' actions a "dead of the night" maneuver, Schiff suggested that the chairman's decisions had been aimed at buttressing Trump's debunked claim that President Barack Obama had wiretapped him.
"That effort to defend the indefensible has led us down this terrible rabbit hole and threatens the only investigation that is authorized in the House," Schiff said.
Schiff did not say that Democrats would pull out of the investigation, but said it was for Speaker Paul D. Ryan to decide if Nunes should continue as chairman of the intelligence panel.
