The House Intelligence Committee threatened to subpoena the Justice Department and FBI for “all materials” related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
An April 25 letter, released publicly Tuesday, shows House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., saying they will have “no choice but to resort to compulsory process” if the DOJ and FBI did not meet a deadline of last Thursday.
“[T]he Committee will soon start the compulsory process since the Department has not even begun to comply,” a committee aide told Politico.
The pair seeks the full, unredacted report from Mueller, as well as intelligence and counterintelligence information gathered by the special counsel, including “information regarding efforts by the Russian government to contact Americans in furtherance of Russian intelligence operations.” The duo said this differs from the House Judiciary Committee’s fight for access to the full report as well as underlying evidence.
It was the second act of a rare display of bipartisanship in the intelligence panel, where for the past two years Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly clashed over the topic of Trump-Russia collusion.
Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March, was unable to find sufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy between the Kremlin and Trump campaign.
Schiff and Nunes originally wrote to Attorney General William Barr, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray on March 27, asking for the documents and a classified briefing from Mueller.
The latest letter said committee staff were prepared to meet with the DOJ and FBI on April 27 to discuss the requests. It is unclear whether the agencies took them up on the offer.
The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
The House Judiciary Committee has already set up a contempt vote for Barr for Wednesday over his defiance of a subpoena to turn over the full, unredacted Russia investigation report to that panel. Justice Department and House Judiciary staff met on Tuesday to try and negotiate a deal.
