New subpoenas issued in Russia inquiry
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas Wednesday, ramping up its investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and into whether names of President Trump’s associates were improperly revealed in classified intelligence reports.
Subpoenas went to Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, and to the president’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
The Senate Intelligence Committee and a federal grand jury in Virginia also have issued subpoenas for Flynn’s business records.
In a statement, the House committee said it had issued subpoenas seeking “testimony, personal documents and business records” from Flynn and Cohen.
It also approved subpoenas for the Flynn Intel Group LLC and for Michael D. Cohen & Associates PC.
“We hope and expect that anyone called to testify or provide documents will comply with that request, so that we may gain all the information within the scope of our investigation. We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead,” Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R- Texas), the committee chairman, and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), the ranking member, said in a statement.
The investigative moves come as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia, has cleared ousted FBI Director James B. Comey to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his contacts with the president, according to a Comey associate.
No hearing date was set for Comey’s testimony, which is likely to focus on reports that Comey filed an internal memo in mid-February saying that Trump had asked him to ease up the FBI investigation of Flynn.
Trump abruptly fired Comey as head of the FBI on May 9.
The president later said in an interview on NBC News that he was concerned about the FBI investigation into what he called the “Russia thing.”
Comey’s memo, and the president’s statements, have sparked concern that Trump was seeking to block the widening FBI investigation into Trump’s top aides, including at least one still at the White House.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
The latest subpoenas sparked new partisan wrangling on the House panel, with aides to Democratic lawmakers complaining that the chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), had approved three subpoenas without their knowledge.
The three subpoenas — to the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency — suggested Nunes was moving independently of the panel’s main investigation into Russian meddling and was focusing instead on an issue that the White House preferred.
In a separate development, a senior Justice Department lawyer and FBI veteran with experience in complex financial fraud investigations has agreed to join the special counsel’s investigation.
Andrew Weissman has led the fraud section at the Justice Department, where he oversaw investigations into corporate wrongdoing at Volkswagen and Takata.
He is the highest-ranking Justice Department official to join Mueller’s team.