G.O.P. Panel Chairman Apologizes for Withholding Trump Data From Democrats

The Republican chairman of the House committee investigating Russian interference in the election apologized in a private meeting on Thursday for not sharing intelligence with the panel’s top Democrat before giving it to President Trump and the news media, Democratic lawmakers said.

But the expression of contrition from Representative Devin Nunes of California, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to members of the panel did little to quiet criticism from Democrats who said he had proved himself unable to conduct an unbiased inquiry.

Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, said Mr. Nunes had “apologized for not informing the ranking member.” Mr. Nunes’s decision to bypass the top Democrat, Mr. Schiff, and then to brief Mr. Trump, whose associates are under investigation, called into question the inquiry’s future days after its first public hearing.

By Thursday afternoon, members of the committee, including Mr. Schiff, said they had still not seen the information that Mr. Nunes claimed to have received. Mr. Schiff, who said members had expressed “profound concern” to the chairman, said Congress should create an outside commission — something Republican leaders have resisted.

Mr. Nunes said his decision to go around Mr. Schiff was “a judgment call.”

“At the end of the day, sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the wrong one,” he told reporters. “But you’ve got to stick by the decisions you make.”

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