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March 30 (UPI) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday held a hearing on Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The top Republican and Democratic members of the panel held a news conference Wednesday promising bipartisan cooperation on the investigation.
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Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va., the committee's chair and vice chair, said they can't yet determine whether the Russian government interfered in the election or whether members of President Donald Trump's campaign were complicit in such an effort.
Burr said the committee this week requested to interview 20 people close to the matter, and that five of those interviews have been scheduled. The only person on that list publicly identified so far is senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, the chairman said.
The Senate committee's investigation into Russia began in January and is still in its early stages. Burr noted that seven full-time staffers are assigned to the investigation and that they have been given a large amount of information previously available only to the "Gang of Eight," a name for the top eight intelligence leaders in Congress.
Two subcommittees will also review Moscow policies and Russian technology.
The Senate panel's investigation is running concurrently to probes in the House Intelligence Committee and the U.S. Department of Justice. All three are ongoing, but the U.S. intelligence community said weeks ago that Moscow had attempted to intercede in the election on Trump's behalf and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had direct knowledge of -- and had perhaps even ordered -- the effort.
Doug G. Ware contributed to this report.
