Republican lawmakers will review material
WASHINGTON >> Just two Republican lawmakers will be allowed to review classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided the investigation into the Trump campaign at a meeting Thursday with Justice Department and intelligence officials, a White House spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced at a White House press briefing that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., would be the only two lawmakers at the meeting, which would also include FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan.
Sanders said no White House officials would attend, even though chief of staff John Kelly brokered the gathering. She said Democrats were cut out because they had not requested the same materials that their Republican colleagues had.
“To my knowledge, the Democrats have not requested that information, so I would refer you back to them on why they would consider themselves randomly invited to see something they’ve never asked to,” Sanders said.
The move stoked some consternation in Congress. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member of the intelligence committee, had said previously he was “sure that I’ll be invited to join.”
He said after learning he was not invited, “This is another serious abuse of power. There’s a bipartisan mechanism called the Gang of 8. They need to use it.”
Even some Republicans had said they saw no reason their Democratic colleagues could not attend.
“Certainly I would think you would have ranking members as well, if they wanted to view those documents,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, before the announcement.
The meeting will mark the next milestone in a long-running feud between President Donald Trump, the Justice Department and conservative lawmakers over the FBI’s use of a confidential source in what is now special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia.
The source, GOP veteran and former University of Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, had contact with at least three advisers to Trump during the campaign. Trump and his allies have sought to cast that as inappropriate political spying.
“A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign,” Trump told reporters during a meeting in the Oval Office with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
“If they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country. That would be one of the biggest insults anyone has ever seen,” he added. “It would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes.”
At Trump’s direction, the Justice Department this week asked its inspector general to review the use of Halper, though that did little to satisfy some members of Congress who want access to documents about him and his dealings with the FBI.
Justice Department officials have been reluctant to turn over the materials, though on Monday, after meeting with Trump at the White House, they reached an agreement to have another gathering where lawmakers could review information.