Sticking With Trump, Republicans Resist Call for Broader Russian Inquiry -<br />By MATT FLEGENHEIMERMARCH 2, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans, straining to defend the Trump administration amid investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, resisted growing calls<br />on Thursday for a special prosecutor or select congressional committee to review the matter, even as Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any inquiry.<br />Leaders have said that any investigation of ties between Mr. Trump’s team<br />and Russian officials should be conducted through normal channels — placing one vocal Trump campaign supporter in charge of the primary Senate inquiry and, until this week, another at the head of any Justice Department review.<br />Initially, the fallout seemed to spawn fissures among Republicans: Several, including Senators Rob Portman of Ohio<br />and Susan Collins of Maine, were quick to call for Mr. Sessions’s recusal, defying party leaders — including President Trump — who had said earlier on Thursday that they saw no reason for it.<br />The result, though, is that the controversy has focused attention once again on an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee,<br />led by its Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, an often outspoken Trump supporter during the campaign.
