House Republicans grill FBI, Justice leaders on Russia probe
WASHINGTON » Republicans accused top federal law enforcement officials Thursday of withholding important documents from them and demanded details about surveillance tactics during the Russia investigation in a contentious congressional hearing that capped days of mounting partisan complaints.
The hearing was Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s first appearance before Congress since an internal Justice Department report criticized the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and revealed new disparaging text messages among FBI officials about President Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee suggested the department has conspired against Trump by refusing to turn over documents they believe would show improper conduct by the FBI. They seized on the inspector general report to allege bias against the president by the FBI and to discredit an investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign that is now led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, said of the investigation.
“Whatever you’ve got,” he added, “finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart.”
Thursday’s hearing came as the House passed a resolution demanding the department turn over thousands of documents by July 6 on FBI investigations into Clinton’s private email use and Trump campaign ties to Russia. Both investigations unfolded during the presidential election, causing the FBI — which prides itself on independence — to become entangled in presidential politics in ways that are continuing to shake out.
The hearing followed weeks of Republican attacks on the Justice Department and allegations of bias within the FBI. On Wednesday, lawmakers spent hours behind closed doors grilling Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who worked on both the Clinton and Russia investigations and traded antiTrump text messages with an FBI lawyer.
The inspector general criticized the officials for creating an appearance of impropriety through those messages but did not find evidence that bias had tainted the final decisions of prosecutors in the Clinton investigation.
Republican Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, one of the strongest GOP critics of the Republican-led Justice Department, and Jim Jordan of Ohio were behind the nonbinding resolution.