House seeks Russia probe documents

The measure, though nonbinding, is intended to put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on notice that House lawmakers are serious about their demands, and it could presage an effort by the full House to punish him if he does not comply.

WASHINGTON — The House voted along party lines Thursday to give the Justice Department seven days to produce sensitive documents about the Russia investigation, as conservative Republicans pointedly accused the leaders of that investigation of hiding information to protect their own interests.

The measure, though nonbinding, is intended to put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on notice that House lawmakers are serious about their demands, and it could presage an effort by the full House to punish him if he does not comply. The most conservative House members have openly suggested that the resolution may set up Rosenstein for impeachment.

“Executives at the Department of Justice have done nothing but pay lip service to transparency, while instead choosing to obstruct, slowwalk and deny legitimate congressional attempts to obtain documents and conduct oversight,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a sponsor of the resolution who earlier this week raised the possibility of impeachment.

“We are tired of them giving us the runaround,” Meadows said.

That was a message delivered repeatedly by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, many of whom pushed for the resolution as another cudgel in their monthslong fight with Rosenstein, a top appointee of President Donald Trump.

Under a barrage of questioning, Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and whether Trump associates coordinated with it, and FBI Director Christopher Wray put up a spirited defense of the inquiry and the job they have done in producing volumes of sensitive material requested by the committee.

Rosenstein, at times raising his voice and pointing his finger, strongly defended himself and the department during the hours-long hearing, saying he was doing his best to balance congressional oversight with the need to preserve the integrity of ongoing investigations. He said that despite Republican allegations to the contrary, he was “not trying to hide anything.”

“We are not in contempt of this Congress, and we are not going to be in contempt of this Congress,” he said.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., delivered a lengthy monologue on the anti-Trump text messages exchanged by some FBI officials. He then pleaded with Rosenstein to conclude the Russia investigation.

“We’ve seen the bias — we need to see the evidence,” Gowdy said. “If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury. If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the American people. There’s an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied. I think right now all of us are being denied. Whatever you got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart.”

Rosenstein responded that he shared Gowdy’s concerns but added: “With regard to the investigation, I’ve heard suggestions that we should just close the investigation. I think the best thing we can do is finish it appropriately and reach a conclusion.”

Wray said he intended to clean up the culture of leaking and rule-bending at the FBI, which was outlined in a blistering report prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general about the handling of the Hillary Clinton email case. And he said the bureau was working around the clock to produce hundreds of thousands of pages of documents to Congress. But he made clear that he was not pleased to be locked in a fight with Republicans.

“When I was minding my own business in private practice in Atlanta, I didn’t think I was going to be spending the first 10 months of my job staring down the barrel of a contempt citation for conduct that occurred long before I even thought about being FBI director,” Wray said.

Democrats, who voted as a bloc against the measure, said it was a political distraction meant to further bloody the reputation of the department as it investigates Trump and his campaign. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, called it “clearly a pretext for a move against Mr. Rosenstein that the majority already has planned.”

Thursday’s resolution comes as Rosenstein and other department officials have been working to meet the requests of the Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. House lawmakers stepped up their pressure in a meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and a trio of House committee chairmen this month. If the department did not show compliance, Ryan told the officials, he would allow lawmakers to take long-threatened punitive action on the floor of the House to force the issue.

Ryan has since said the department is showing a goodfaith effort to meet their demands, and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Thursday’s measure was not really necessary.