The top Democratic leaders in Congress sent an “urgent request” to the Department of Justice Wednesday urging them to either cancel a planned briefing with Republicans on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, or invite Democrats to the meeting.
“This meeting is completely improper in its proposed form and would set a damaging precedent for your institutions and the rule of law,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
[Republican senator: Democrats should be included in FBI document viewing]
The letter was sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray, who are scheduled to brief two GOP lawmakers Thursday about an FBI informant who was spying on the Trump campaign. The White House said Tuesday that it only planned to brief two Republican lawmakers because only they have been asking the Justice Department to see documents related to how the Russia investigation began.
[Also read: White House: Dems not invited to document review because they ‘never asked’]
Pelosi and Schumer called the meeting “highly irregular and inappropriate” because of Mueller’s ongoing probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians.
Pelosi and Schumer said if the meeting goes on as planned, it should include the so-called Gang of Eight, which is comprised of the top four bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate as well as the chair and ranking members of both the House and Senate Intelligence panels.
“If you have determined in your best judgment that Justice Department participation in the meeting is the only way to prevent this situation from devolving into an outright constitutional crisis, then we believe you must insist on the only appropriate mechanism for highly sensitive briefings that might implicate intelligence sources and methods – a bipartisan Gang of Eight briefing that involves congressional leadership from both chambers,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote.
