Lawmakers cancel Rosenstein interview
House committees, Justice Department at odds over terms of question session
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s interview with a joint House panel reviewing the Justice Department investigation of President Donald Trump and Russia will not take place this week as expected, according to congressional aides involved with the planning.
The House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee were expected to speak with Rosenstein privately today as part of their inquiry into federal law enforcement’s conduct during the investigations of Trump’s campaign and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. But a dispute over the terms of the interview prevented the committees and the Justice Department from agreeing on when a meeting would occur, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The delay means Rosenstein may not appear on Capitol Hill for an interview until after next month’s elections, potentially exposing him to a subpoena. The House Judiciary Committee has frequently used subpoenas in its investigation to compel witness testimony and the production of Justice Department documents.
“We have many questions for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and expect answers to those questions,” a House Judiciary Committee aide said. “There is not at this time a confirmed date for a potential meeting. Nevertheless, we will continue to provide updates as we have them.”
Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, has been a target of Trump’s Republican allies on the joint panel. They’ve accused the Justice Department of intentionally drawing out efforts to produce documents for the panels’ investigation.
Lawmakers’ interest in returning Rosenstein to Capitol Hill arose after publication of a New York Times report indicating that the deputy attorney general had suggested secretly recording Trump and invoking a constitutional amendment to remove the president from office. Rosenstein has disputed the report, though he offered to submit his resignation in its wake.
On Monday, Trump said he had no plans to remove Rosenstein, after a discussion the two had aboard Air Force One.
The House Judiciary Committee has already subpoenaed memos drafted by former FBI
Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that say Rosenstein suggested recording the president. Last week, both the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees interviewed former FBI general counsel James Baker, who told the panels that he understood Rosenstein’s suggestion to be serious.
At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, pressed FBI Director Chris Wray about turning over a copy of McCabe’s memo detailing the May 16, 2017, meeting.
“Will we get that memo?” Johnson asked.
“We have to get back to you about that,” Wray replied. That angered the lawmaker, who complained that the FBI too often blocks congressional requests for information.
“It prevents the people’s representatives from actually getting to the truth,” Johnson said. “Every time there’s a criminal investigation, Congress can’t get information.”
House lawmakers — some of whom have expressed skepticism about McCabe’s credibility while he is under investigation over allegations that he lied to FBI officials — say they want to hear directly from Rosenstein. They are also expected to ask him about other outstanding materials that Trump’s allies say will expose what Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has called the “rotten” foundations of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Support from House Republican leaders for these efforts has ebbed and flowed. Last month, frustrated by what they saw as a lack of action by the committees, Trump’s allies appealed directly to Trump to declassify documents they see as key to the congressional panels’ investigation. Trump initially agreed before reneging, under pressure from allies.
The Judiciary Committee has since subpoenaed documents it believes will show that the FBI left critical information out of its application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — details, they say, that could have drawn suspicion away from Page and the Trump team.