US House panel leaders split over session on Russia

The partisan divide over the House Intelligence Committee´s probe of Russian interference in the US presidential election deepened on Friday, when the committee´s top Democrat suggested its Republican chairman cancelled a public hearing after pressure from the White House.

Panel chairman Devin Nunes said he had to cancel next Tuesday´s hearing with officials from former Democratic President Barack Obama´s administration in order to have a classified briefing with the directors of the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"The committee seeks additional information that can only be addressed in closed session," Representative Nunes told reporters.

FBI Director James Comey and NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers testified at a public hearing on Monday at which Comey confirmed for the first time that the FBI is investigating possible ties between Republican President Donald Trump´s campaign as Moscow sought to influence the 2016 election.

Representative Adam Schiff, the intelligence committee´s top Democrat, said the cancellation was not in the public interest.

"I think that there must have been a very strong pushback from the White House about the nature of Monday´s hearing.

The scheduled witnesses, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, were in office when the purported hacking and disinformation by Russia to influence the election took place.

Russia has denied allegations by US intelligence agencies that it sought to influence the election, and Trump, a Republican, has said the controversy was cooked up by Democrats and fanned by hostile media.

Nunes also said Friday that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort´s lawyers told the committee that he is volunteering to be interviewed, and that the panel would work with his lawyers to decide whether the interview would be open or closed to the public.