FURY ON THE HILL Rosenstein and FBI boss take fire from GOP Hurl barbs back during Judiciary hearing
Irate Republican lawmakers unleashed personal attacks and engaged in testy exchanges on Capitol Hill Thursday during tense testimony from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The pair defended themselves and their agencies against the grilling from the House Judiciary Committee amid an ongoing fight over document requests related to the federal Russia investigation and a recently released watchdog report on Justice's handling of the Hillary Clinton email case.
Tempers flared early during an exchange between Rosenstein and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who repeatedly talked over answers and accused the Justice Department's second-in-command of “hiding information.”
When Jordan pointed to a redacted document and accused the career U.S. attorney of personally withholding information, Rosenstein flatly corrected him.
"I am the deputy general of the United States, OK,” he responded. “I'm not the person doing the redacting."
The combative exchange led Rosenstein to tell Jordan that his “use of this to attack me personally is deeply wrong.”
Jordan's line of questioning then elicited laughter as he cited unconfirmed reports accusing Rosenstein of threatening congressional staffers.
“This is what they said: 'Having the nation's No. 1 law enforcement officer threaten to subpoena your calls and emails is downright chilling,' " Jordan said. “Did you threaten to subpoena their calls and emails?"
“No sir," Rosenstein responded, adding, "and there's no way to subpoena phone calls."
Rosenstein admitted that the department's inspector general's report into the Clinton case revealed that some FBI officials “deviated from important principles.”
“Everyone knew about some of those departures as they occurred. We learned about others through the internal investigation, such as leaking to the news media, and political bias,” Rosenstein said. “We need to correct errors, hold wrongdoers accountable, and deter future violations.”
But he held his ground against attacks Jordan and other GOPers leveled against him and special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
"This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said of the investigation.
"Whatever you've got," he added, his voice rising, "finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart."
The exchange was eyebrow raising because Mueller has been investigating the case for a year — and Gowdy ran the Hillary Clinton-Benghazi investigation for close to four years.
Rosenstein was also able to shut down Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), who demanded to know why the Justice official had not recused himself from oversight of Mueller's investigation.
DeSantis cited a Rosenstein-penned memo criticizing former FBI head James Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation in relation to the possible obstruction of justice investigation into the President.
The White House initially held up the
memo as the rationale for Comey's dismissal.
"I can assure you that if it were appropriate for me to recuse, I'd be more than happy to do so," Rosenstein responded.
The House approved a measure Thursday demanding that the Department of Justice turn over documents related to the FBI's handling of investigations into the 2016 campaign by July 6.
The resolution is not enforceable, but Republicans have said they would impeach or hold senior officials in contempt if they don't comply.
Wray defended the bureau's document production to Congress, saying that it has “substantially complied” with a committee subpoena seeking documents.
“For months, we've been working with your committee to make witnesses available, answer questions, and produce or make available to you and your staff over now 880,000 pages,” Wray told the committee.
Republicans have fiercely criticized the FBI and DOJ in recent months, accusing the agencies of slow-walking their document production to House committees conducting parallel investigations into their decision-making during the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats have countered that the requests are related to Republican efforts to undercut Mueller's probe, something Rep. Mark Meadows (RN.C.) did not deny.
"Yes, when we get these documents, we believe that it will do away with this whole fiasco of what they call the Russian Trump collusion because there wasn't any," he said on the House floor.
President Trump has repeatedly blasted the FBI and accused top officials of political bias against him. He said last year that the agency's reputation was “in tatters.”
Trump has also attacked Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling and whether anyone in the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 presidential contest in the President's favor.
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) referenced Trump's habit of referring to the special counsel team as “the 13 Angry Democrats,” asking Rosenstein and Wray about their political affiliation.
“I'm not a Democrat, and I'm not angry,” Rosenstein said.
Wray, asked the same question, told Gutierrez, “I do not consider myself an angry Democrat, you can be confident in that.”
Meanwhile, House Democrats urged the pair in a letter made public Thursday not to bend to Republican pressure.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) both signed off on the letter.
“As the attacks on the Special Counsel intensify, it is imperative that you withstand pressure on DOJ and FBI to violate established procedures and norms. Your role in preserving the integrity of the Special Counsel's investigation and, most importantly, our justice system has become even more vital,” the lawmakers wrote.