by CHQ Staff
President Trump has once again taken to Twitter to light a fire under the Department of Justice.
In a post early Wednesday the President tweeted:
The House of Representatives seeks contempt citations(?) against the JusticeDepartment and the FBI for withholding key documents and an FBI witness which could shed light on surveillance of associates of Donald Trump. Big stuff. Deep State. Give this information NOW! @FoxNews
The House of Representatives seeks contempt citations(?) against the JusticeDepartment and the FBI for withholding key documents and an FBI witness which could shed light on surveillance of associates of Donald Trump. Big stuff. Deep State. Give this information NOW! @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017
In an internal House memo obtained by Fox News, and reported by senior Washington Reporter James Rosen, a senior counsel for the House Intelligence Committee urged Republican Chairman Devin Nunes three weeks ago to pursue contempt of Congress citations against the Justice Department and FBI.
Rosen reports Congressional investigators accuse those agencies of withholding key documents and an FBI witness that could shed light on whether U.S. officials under then-President Barack Obama relied on the infamous anti-Trump “dossier” to justify surveillance against associates of then-candidate Donald Trump.
“We’re trying to work with DOJ and the FBI. We hope that they will comply, but if they don’t they leave us very little option, very few options,” Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News.
He said they sent subpoenas out in June, July and August “that still haven’t been complied with.”
Nunes added, “So I think stonewalling would be putting it lightly.”
The dossier is the compendium of salacious and mostly unverified allegations about Trump and others on his campaign that was compiled last year by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS and based in part on Russian sourcing.
Bank records obtained by the Nunes panel revealed that the dossier was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
In early January, Trump said it was “a group of opponents that got together — sick people — and they put that crap together.”
GOP lawmakers have spent eight months – including issuing a subpoena on Aug. 24 – probing whether then-FBI Director James Comey and other officials, who received the dossier in July 2016, used it to place surveillance on Trump associates.
Back in March, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, asked Comey if he was investigating the claims made in the dossier.
“I’m not gonna comment on that, Mr. Castro,” Comey replied.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who was briefed this week on the panel’s probe, is said to be working behind the scenes to advance the case, following stern public comments last month claims Rosen.
“We’ve had these document requests with the administration, with the FBI in particular, for a long time and they’ve been stonewalling,” he said on Oct. 25.
Rosen reports that in the internal memo, Nunes’ counsel wrote: “After eight months of ongoing verbal, written, and subpoenaed requests — and engagement by Committee and House leadership at the highest levels — DOJ/FBI continues to impede the Committee’s legitimate investigative efforts and hinders the Committee’s ability to conduct effective oversight.”
The counsel wrote, “Staff therefore recommends further congressional compliance actions” – a phrase sources told Rosen was code for contempt citations.
This is just another example of how the Deep State continues to defy the President and the will of the people as expressed in the 2016 election. As much as we respect Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Trump wasn’t elected, and he wasn’t appointed Attorney General, to continue the Obama-era policies of defying congressional subpoenas. If Jeff Sessions can’t get his underlings to comply with these subpoenas heads should roll – either theirs or his.
