The Justice Department responded to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ latest deadline, telling him he already has the “documents and answers” he has been inquiring about.
“Your letter asks whether the Department and the FBI ‘intend to obey’ the law. We believe that is exactly what the Department and the FBI have been doing responding to the Committee’s subpoenas and requests,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd in a Monday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Nunes, R-Calif., wrote a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday in which he slammed the DOJ’s Number 2 official for “unilaterally” restricting access to some subpoenaed documents to the “Gang of Eight,” a term used to describe a bipartisan group of congressional leaders briefed on information relating to the FBI’s use of a confidential informant in the Trump campaign.
He set a 5 p.m. Monday deadline to provide requested information, the latest demand in a months-long back-and-forth over information.
Nunes goaded the Justice Department for the FBI’s “late-night letters” on Friday to three of the House’s top committee chairmen, and said the responses made him wonder if the two agencies “intend to obey the law and fully comply with duly authorized congressional subpoenas.”
The Justice Department told Nunes on Monday that the FBI responded to his requests about the use of confidential informant because those documents and materials are “solely in the custody and control of the FBI.”
Boyd also noted that the FBI responded to Nunes’ requests on June 15 and June 22.
“The Department also has provided documents and answers to your inquiries, including in productions made last week,” wrote Boyd.
A small group of House Republicans have been at loggerheads with the Justice Department and the FBI for months over subpoenas issued by Nunes and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy has also demanded documents from the Justice Department and FBI.
Aside from documents related to the use of a confidential FBI informant, the chairmen have also sought information related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Trump associates.
Nunes specifically asked for more details about the FBI’s use of informants on the Trump campaign, and how much money that may have been spent.
In the Sunday letter, Nunes demanded to know whether Rosenstein or FBI Director Christopher Wray is “responsible for compliance with the Committee’s subpoenas,” and also scolded the FBI for passing of a request to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
The FBI referred questions regarding transcripts and summaries of conversations between FBI sources and Trump campaign aides to Dan Coats.
In a Friday letter to Nunes, Acting FBI Assistant Director Jill Tyson said that the bureau had “substantially complied” with most of his document requests, describing in great detail when those requests were fulfilled.
The only outstanding request was about documents related to Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy who authored the Steele dossier, and certain FISA applications.
The FBI’s sifting of thousands of communications is ongoing, and the bureau has even “shifted resources from other Congressional production products and is adding staff to further expedite the review and processing,” Tyson said.
In a separate Friday letter to Goodlatte and Gowdy, the FBI provided a detailed description of when it fulfilled requests following an extensive subpoena in March regarding the FBI and Justice Department’s Clinton and Russia probes.
The FBI turned over 1,400 pages of documents to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, wrote Tyson, and added it is working to address a request about of documents and communications relating to “proposed, recommended or actual” surveillance of the Clinton Foundation or persons associated with it.
That request has proven “difficult to address,” and the FBI wants to talk with the committees further, Tyson said.
Trump addressed the documents quarrel Monday morning — ignoring the fact that both are led by his own appointees.
“I have tried to stay uninvolved with the Department of Justice and FBI (although I do not legally have to), because of the now totally discredited and very expensive Witch Hunt currently going on,” he tweeted. “But you do have to ask why the DOJ & FBI aren’t giving over requested documents?”
Democrats have accused the president and Trump-aligned lawmakers of seeking to interfere with the federal investigation of Russian interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
