During a hearing on Monday before the House Intelligence Committee, FBI Director Comey confirmed that the FBI is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and testified that “there is no information” supporting President Donald J. Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower or President Trump.

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence delivered remarks at the start of the meeting, which focused on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Election.

“Last summer, at the height of a bitterly contested and hugely consequential presidential campaign, a foreign, adversarial power intervened in an effort to weaken our democracy, and to influence the outcome for one candidate and against the other,” Schiff said. “That foreign adversary was, of course, Russia, and it acted through its intelligence agencies and upon the direct instructions of its autocratic ruler, Vladimir Putin, in order to help Donald J. Trump become the 45th President of the United States.”

Schiff said the Russian interference campaign may have started as early as 2015, when Russian intelligence services launched a series of “spearphishing attacks” designed to penetrate the computers of a broad array of Washington-based Democratic and Republican party organizations, think tanks and other entities. This continued at least through winter of 2016.

The hacking may have been intended solely for the collection of foreign intelligence at first, Schiff said, but in mid-2016, the Russians “weaponized” the stolen data and used platforms established by their intel services, such as DC Leaks and existing third party channels like Wikileaks, to dump the documents.

“The stolen documents were almost uniformly damaging to the candidate Putin despised, Hillary Clinton and, by forcing her campaign to constantly respond to the daily drip of disclosures, the releases greatly benefited Donald Trump’s campaign,” Schiff said. “None of these facts is seriously in question and they are reflected in the consensus conclusions of all our intelligence agencies.”

He said it’s most important to remember that the United States does not know if the Russians had the help of U.S. citizens, or people associated with the Trump campaign.

“If the Trump campaign, or anybody associated with it, aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of the most shocking betrayals of our democracy in history,” Schiff said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said Comey’s testimony confirmed what he told her in a private briefing last week about Obama wiretapping Trump Tower.

“These developments reinforce the need for a thorough investigation that is free from political interference and follows the facts where they lead,” Feinstein said in a statement. “We have known for months that Russia interfered in our election with the goal of boosting the Trump campaign. Understanding the full range of what happened – including whether any Americans were involved – is essential.”

She added that the Judiciary Committee already held a subcommittee hearing on the issue, and she expects they will hold more hearings in the future.

“And the Senate Intelligence Committee continues to look into the matter,” she said. “These bipartisan investigations must be allowed to continue to their conclusions.”

Schiff also added that intelligence agencies and the committee found no evidence to support “that slanderous accusation” from Trump.