A top Republican committee chairman conveyed a need for House Speaker Paul Ryan to take a more active role pressing the Justice Department to comply with congressional requests for documents.
“I think it’s important for the speaker to intervene,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte told Fox News on Wednesday after noting that some document productions are working while others are not.
The Virginia Republican had been speaking about what he anticipates members will see in the DOJ inspector general’s report examining the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The highly anticipated report is expected to be made public on Thursday and run hundreds of pages long.
Goodlatte emphasized his eagerness to see the report, which he explained lawmakers will gain access to hours before it goes public, because it will reveal whether the Justice Department has kept certain documents out of the hands of congressional investigators who have asked for them.
“We need to bring the key parties from the Department of Justice over here and let them know what they haven’t produced, make them explain why they haven’t produced it, and tell them they have to get it to us. We are making progress,” Goodlatte said. “Also the inspector general’s report is going to help in this regard because we’ll see some of the things that we have and some of the things we’re missing.”
If documents are found to have slipped through the cracks, “there’s going to be a lot of embarrassed faces over at the Department of Justice because we’ve been asking for everything the inspector general had,” Goodlatte added.
Goodlatte’s committee is included, as he has sought documents pertaining to two FBI agents who allegedly displayed an anti-Trump bias.
When asked if Ryan needs to be involved more, Goodlatte stressed that Ryan, R-Wis., has been helpful when he’s been needed to deal with a government agencies in document requests, including in the House Intelligence Committee’s very public struggle with the DOJ to obtain records related to alleged bias in the agency and FBI.
Goodlatte further explained that it is “appropriate he do that with regard to any production of documents asked from any government agency where they’re stonewalling the Congress.”
