Updated at 7:38 p.m.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., condemned Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., for warning that top officials at the Justice Department and FBI could be held in contempt of Congress and be impeached.
Nunes made the comments Tuesday due to his frustration with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for so far not fulfilling his demands to gain access to a document that was used by the FBI to launch the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Schiff said the threat could provide President Trump an excuse to terminate Rosenstein and Wray, and thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump is reportedly looking at firing Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Mueller probe, after it was reported he approved an FBI raid of the office and home of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
“Chairman Nunes’ threat of contempt proceedings, and of impeachment, serves insidious purposes: to intimidate DOJ and FBI, to provide the president with a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray, and to undermine special counsel Mueller’s investigation,” Schiff said, according to Politico. “The chairman’s rhetoric is a shocking and irresponsible escalation of the GOP’s attacks on the FBI and DOJ.”
Nunes submitted a letter to Rosenstein and Wray last week requesting a copy of the document, which argues that a conversation between an Australian diplomat and former Trump campaign official George Papadopoulos initiated the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion, not unverified aspects of the so-called “Trump dossier.”
The document was leaked to the New York Times, and Nunes argued over the weekend that Congress must see it to “verify” if what was provided to the newspaper is accurate and if there are additional details that have not emerged yet.
The deadline Nunes set was today, April 11. A Justice Department confirmed Wednesday that the agency showed the House Intelligence Committee the document, but with names redacted.
In response, Nunes thanked Rosenstein and said the document provided information that can assist the Committee in their investigation concerning the Justice Department and the FBI.
“During the meeting, we were finally given access to a version of the [electronic communication] that contained the information necessary to advance the Committee’s ongoing investigation of the Department of Justice and FBI,” Nunes said in a statement. “Although the subpoenas issued by this Committee in August 2017 remain in effect, I’d like to thank Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein for his cooperation today.”
