The House Judiciary Committee — which will host Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Thursday — passed a resolution demanding the Justice Department produce documents within 14 days that have been left over from outstanding subpoenas.
The resolution was spearheaded by Republican Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio — the leaders of the House Freedom Caucus — and is the latest chapter of a long-running back-and-forth between Trump-allied lawmakers and the DOJ.
The measure passed 15-11 and comes less than 24 hours after the DOJ told House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., that he had all the documents and materials he has requested relating to the FBI’s Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations.
The measure demands the DOJ fully comply with subpoenas from Nunes and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
However, there is nothing in the resolution that would penalize the DOJ if it fails to comply, though House Republicans have previously threatened Rosenstein with impeachment.
Nunes demanded more documents from the DOJ and FBI on Sunday, setting a Monday afternoon deadline following a Friday letter from the FBI telling him how the bureau had fulfilled his requests.
The FBI also told Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Friday that it had fulfilled his extensive subpoena in March regarding the FBI and Justice Department’s Clinton and Russia probes.
“The intent is to call to attention to the Department of Justice that they are not in compliance with what is requested of them,” said Goodlatte on Tuesday, who voted for the resolution, even though he said he was not sure it “is completely necessary.”
Jordan said GOP lawmakers “are sick and tired of the Department of Justice giving us the runaround.”
“What I want is the full weight of the House behind this resolution saying give us what we’re entitled to have,” he added.
But Jordan may be at odds with House leadership, who will decide whether or not to bring the resolution to the floor for a full vote.
“I got involved a week ago. And since that, we have had compliance coming forth from the DOJ,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., earlier Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “Now the question is will all the requests be honored this week? I think they’re going to be honored very, very soon.”
Jordan, like other House conservatives, have demanded the documents amid allegations that the DOJ and FBI had bias in their investigations into Clinton and Trump.
They have most recently seized on a DOJ inspector general report, which found bias among top officials on the investigations.
However, that political bias did not affect the outcome of the investigation into Clinton, said the IG.
Democrats have countered, saying Republicans are using their requests to ultimately interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible Kremlin links with the Trump campaign in May 2017.
“Members of the majority want that investigation compromised, members of the majority want that investigation interfered with, and this is part of the effort to do so,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the committee’s ranking Democrat. “The constitutional underpinnings of the republic are at stake.”
The last time the DOJ was at odds with Republican lawmakers was in May, when they said they had drafted articles of impeachment against Rosenstein.
But the DOJ’s No. 2 shot back.
“But I can tell you, that there have been people that have been making threats against me privately and publicly for some time, and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted,” Rosenstein said at the time during an event in Washington, D.C.
He added: “We’re going to do what’s required by the rule of law, and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job.”
But since then, the DOJ and FBI have gone through extraordinary lengths to comply with numerous requests from GOP lawmakers, including holding multiple briefings to go over classified information.
Rosenstein will likely be grilled by what the DOJ has — and hasn’t done — during his Thursday appearance before House Judiciary, and the committee is still moving forward with other interviews centered around the the ongoing issues.
FBI Director Christopher Wray will join Rosenstein on Thursday, and former top counterintelligence official Peter Strzok will be deposed behind closed doors on Wednesday.
Strzok who was part of the FBI’s Clinton and Russia investigations before being detailed to Mueller’s probe, was blasted in the DOJ IG report for his bias.
The IG concluded that Strzok’s texts, along with other disparaging messages, are “not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.”
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, referred his findings on Strzok to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary measures.
