--- title: John McCain: Russia Probe Needs 'Special Committee' description: Senator John McCain says that the investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election needs to be handled by a special committee canonical: https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-23T00:07:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:30.426Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain: Congress Isn't Credible Enough to Handle Russia Investigation og:description: He wants a special committee to take over og:url: https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79ae45016baa0b46/6988bd45cd1bbabe89704369/gettyimages-635470416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain: Congress Isn't Credible Enough to Handle Russia Investigation twitter:description: He wants a special committee to take over twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79ae45016baa0b46/6988bd45cd1bbabe89704369/gettyimages-635470416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Says Congress Isn't Credible Enough to Handle the Russia Investigation > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Key Republican Lawmaker Says Intelligence Was Collected on Members of Trump Transition [Watch (HLS stream): Key Republican Lawmaker Says Intelligence Was Collected on Members of Trump Transition](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xqpyn8A0.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2017-03-22. The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has confirmed that the intelligence community collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition on numerous occasions_ by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 23, 2017 12:07 AM UTC  Sen. John McCain listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Feb. 15 Sen. John McCain listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Feb. 15 Paul Morigi—WireImage by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 23, 2017 12:07 AM UTC Senator [John McCain](http://time.com/4699123/trump-russia-john-mccain/) (R-Ariz.) says that the investigation into [Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election](http://time.com/4682791/fbi-russia-reince-priebus-andrew-mccabe-justice-rules/) needs to be handled by a special committee because Congress no longer has the “credibility to handle this alone.” Speaking during an episode of _For the Record_ on MSNBC on Wednesday, McCain said that there was no evidence for Rep. Devin Nunes'(R-Calif.) [claim that President Donald Trump and his transition team underwent incidental surveillance](http://time.com/4709443/devin-nunes-trump-transition-intelligence/). McCain immediately followed up by adding that there was also no substantiation for Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) [statement](https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/844649549696286724?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref%5Furl=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4709443%2Fdevin-nunes-trump-transition-intelligence%2F) rebuking Nunes’ comments. “It’s a bizarre situation,”McCain said. “I think that this back and forth and what the American people have found so far is that no longer does Congress have the credibility to handle this alone.” > [](https://twitter.com/nick%5Framsey/status/844673082631602177) McCain added that he has stopped trying to interpret what the president said, a response to Trump’s comments that he feels somewhat “vindicated” by the House Intelligence Committee’s disclosure. ## Transcript Some significant developments occurred over the course of the last few days with information that was brought to my attention. So first I recently confirmed on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U. S. citizens involved in the Trump transition. Details about U. S. persons Associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value or widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting. Third, I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked. Everything that I was able to view did not involve Russia or any discussions with Russians or any Trump people or other Russians. None of it. So none of it has to do with Russia. That doesn't mean that doesn't exist, but we don't have it. It looks to me like it was all legally collected. But it was essentially a lot of information on the President- elect and his transition team, and what they were doing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/"},"headline":"John McCain Says Congress Isn't Credible Enough to Handle the Russia Investigation","datePublished":"2017-03-23T00:07:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:30.426Z","description":"He wants a special committee to take over","url":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79ae45016baa0b46/6988bd45cd1bbabe89704369/gettyimages-635470416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79ae45016baa0b46/6988bd45cd1bbabe89704369/gettyimages-635470416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery","caption":"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery","creditText":"Paul Morigi—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/","name":"John McCain Says Congress Isn't Credible Enough to Handle the Russia Investigation"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Key Republican Lawmaker Says Intelligence Was Collected on Members of Trump Transition","description":"The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has confirmed that the intelligence community collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition on numerous occasions","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xqpyn8A0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-22T19:40:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xqpyn8A0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/","duration":"PT1M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4710342/john-mccain-russian-investigation-special-committee/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```