President Trump took a shot at the Justice Department on Saturday after the agency failed to turn over documents by a Thursday subpoena deadline set by the House Judiciary Committee regarding the FBI’s decision making during the 2016 presidential election.
“Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more,” Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey, ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was recently fired. “Slow walking – what is going on? BAD!” Trump added.
Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more. Slow walking – what is going on? BAD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018
“What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide?” Trump said in a follow-up tweet. “Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!”
What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018
The deadline for the DOJ to turn over documents was Thursday at noon, but it came and went without any documents being produced.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the committee, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued the subpoena more than two weeks ago after they felt the DOJ was stalling in provided the documents in question. The two are leading the joint investigation into the alleged abuses.
“We got no documents from the Department of Justice. Just a phone call. This is unacceptable–it’s time to stop the games,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the oversight committee. “Turn over the documents to Congress and allow us to conduct oversight.”
A Republican House Judiciary Committee aide told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that they were working with the DOJ to take “immediate steps to comply with the subpoena and produce documents to the Committee.”
Conservatives on the committee are working to obtain documents on a multitude of subjects, including alleged FISA abuses by the FBI and DOJ, along with activity concerning the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails during her time as secretary of state.
Of the 1.2 million documents requested, the House Judiciary Committee has only received 3,000 of them.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the number of documents the House Judiciary Committee has received so far.
