House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said he does not support calls for a special prosecutor to look into possible collusion between the Russian government and the campaign of President Donald Trump.
"We have three investigations going on right now," Ryan told Fox News Channel's "Special Report."
The House and Senate Intelligence committees each are running their own probes, he noted, and the FBI also is "investigating all things Russia," so "I don't think that's a good idea. I think the Intelligence Committee is the one that should do it."
The methods and sources of intelligence-gathering also must be protected, Ryan said. "We have to be sensitive so we don't compromise any information."
Responding to claims from Democrats that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday after he had requested more money for the Russia probe, Ryan said he believes Trump simply lost confidence in Comey.
The official explanation from the White House was that Comey had acted improperly during a July 5 press conference in which he laid out a case against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, then recommended against prosecution for her use of a private email server for classified information.
The Justice Department told Trump in a memo that Comey overstepped his bounds and that that was then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch's job.
As to Trump's ties to the probe, "there's never been any evidence presented that President Trump had anything to do with any of this," Ryan said. "The second point is, these investigations are continuing."
The announcement late Tuesday afternoon caught much of Washington off guard, and Comey himself learned about it in the middle of a presentation to agents in Los Angeles.
Ryan said he received a phone call from Trump shortly before the firing.
"He basically called me when I got off a flight to tell me he had made the decision," he said.
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