New Trump-Russia Probe to 'Impede' Ongoing Probe - US Senate Majority Leader

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Appointing a special prosecutor to investigate alleged Russian meddling into the US 2016 election or possible ties with Trump’s campaign would hinder progress of investigations that are already taking place, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday.

"Today we’ll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done to not only discover what the Russians may have done, also to let this body and the National Security community to develop counter measures and war fighting doctrine to see that it doesn’t occur again," McConnell stated.

McConnell noted Democrats would call for a new investigation by a special prosecutor because US President Donald Trump fired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey on Tuesday.

Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that the FBI was engaged in an active probe into possible ties between Trump and Russia.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of interfering in US elections, and have characterized the charges as an absurd attempt to distract the US public from revelations of corruption and other domestic concerns.