GOP lawmaker says House Intel Committee ‘lost all credibility’

A Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee condemned his GOP colleagues for shuttering its Russia investigation, saying the panel has “lost all credibility.”

“We have gone completely off the rails, and now we’re basically a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news,” Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) said Monday night on CNN.

His fellow Republicans on the committee closed the investigation Monday with no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election.

GOP lawmakers plan to give a report and Democrats are likely issue their own briefing about the findings.

“We have lost all credibility and we’re going to issue probably two different reports unfortunately,” said Rooney, who previously called on the investigation to end.

“So in that regard, that’s why I called for the investigation to end.”

Rooney said the Republicans’ final report will conclude Russia didn’t try helping President Trump’s standings.

“I think there were efforts to try to hurt Hillary and help Trump, but I think there was also the opposite too,” Rooney said. “I think their goal was to create mayhem so that any candidate that won — and they did believe Hillary was going to win — was to have that person bloodied and weakened so they would be able to use that in the future against us."

He continued: “I think there is absolutely evidence to show though they were trying to help Trump at some point, but also they were also trying to hurt our side as well. There is evidence of both sides.”

Rooney’s defense of the House investigation came as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended one being undertaken by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“The special counsel is not an unguided missile,” Rosenstein told USA Today on Monday night. “I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel.”

The remarks were some of Rosenstein’s first since news broke earlier this year that Trump mulled firing Mueller at one point during the probe.

The potential firing, which would’ve happened last summer, was reportedly called off after White House lawyer Donald McGahn threatened to quit.