House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Wednesday that there are still some top Obama and Trump administration officials who haven’t yet answered a questionnaire about the Trump dossier. They have until Friday to do so or face subpoenas, he said.
The panel got back “quite a few” responses, as the initial deadline was last Friday, the California Republican said in an interview Wednesday with Lou Dobbs on Fox Business. He added that the committee also got a few extension requests that were granted and there are a few individuals who never replied.
“If they don’t respond by the end of this week, then they will be getting subpoenaed to do a deposition,” Nunes said.
Trump dossier: Democratic funding may lead to subpoenas, @DevinNunes says https://t.co/KtnrDIVJNK pic.twitter.com/hA02HhyXaJ— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) March 8, 2018
More than 20 current and former government officials, as yet unidentified, received a 10-question survey a couple weeks ago from the intelligence panel asking about what they knew and when they knew it about the dossier, which contains unverified claims about President Trump’s potentially compromising ties to Russia, and its author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele.
Under Nunes’ direction, the House Intelligence Committee has sought to uncover wrongdoing by top Justice Department and FBI officials. Last month, the Republicans on the panel, succeeded in seeing a memo on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses released to the public with Trump’s blessing. The memo claims Steele played an important role in the initial FISA application and all three renewal FISA applications to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The House Intel questionnaire seek answers from officials about when they learned that the dossier was financed in party by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, as well as with whom they may have shared that information. The questionnaire also asks when former President Barack Obama was made aware of the claims made in the dossier.
Nunes also said in his interview with Dobbs that his fellow Republicans on House Intel have “taken a lot of heat like I have from the mainstream media” for their work to uncover alleged government surveillance abuse. For their efforts, Nunes said his colleagues “deserve a lot of praise too.”
The Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee put together their own memo, meant as a rebuttal, which has also been released, albeit with redactions.
