Trump asked Senate Republicans to end Russia election interference investigation: report

President Trump reportedly pressed multiple Senate Republicans to end the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to a new report.

Multiple lawmakers and aides told The New York Times that Trump asked several top Republicans, including committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to end the investigation quickly.

{mosads}Trump’s requests came over the summer as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference ramped up.

A White House spokesman told the newspaper that Trump has “at no point … attempted to apply undue influence on committee members.”

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a report made public in January that the Kremlin sought to disrupt the 2016 election and sway the race in Trump’s favor, prompting a number of investigations by House and Senate committees and special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia and has accused Democrats of using the investigation as an excuse for losing the 2016 election.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation has, in recent months, turned increasingly to allegations of coordination between members of Trump’s presidential campaign and Moscow, as well as the president’s abrupt decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, who was previously in charge of the bureau’s own Russia probe.

Trump’s campaign and several of its associates have reportedly begun handing over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its probe into Russia’s election interference.

The New York Times report comes months after Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump asked him to “let go” of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Updated 9:20 p.m.