The Senate Intelligence Committee has given Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., “blanket authority to issue subpoenas as they deem necessary,” the committee said Thursday.
By doing so, the committee can move forward more quickly with its ongoing Russia investigation.
The unanimous vote happened at the end of a week in which the committee has been in a chess match of sorts over subpoenas with President Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Flynn.
After Flynn and his attorney acknowledged he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena the committee had issued earlier in the month, the committee responded by issuing new ones for documents related to two businesses owned by Flynn.
Not long after that, the House Intelligence Committee this week signaled that it too would be subpoenaing documents from Flynn.
Even with the appointment of a special counsel to lead the Russia-related investigations in the Justice Department, the two legislative committees haven’t slowed down and, if anything, have shown an increased appetite for continuing their investigations into how the Kremlin allegedly interfered with U.S. elections in 2016. They’re also looking at whether there was any collusion with members of the Trump campaign.
The House Oversight Committee learned Thursday that the FBI was not ready to hand over memos written by former FBI Director James Comey, which allegedly detail conversations Comey had with Trump. Press reports indicate that the memos show Trump encouraged Comey to drop the bureau’s investigation into Flynn.
