The investigation of the investigators continues to yield more questions than it does answers.
House GOP Reps. Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes are accusing the Department of Justice of targeting a House Intelligence Committee staffer who helped draft an explosive memo that disclosed alleged surveillance abuse by bad actors within the FBI and DOJ.
“I would have a lot more respect for DOJ or House Committee Democrats if they would take out their frustrations on members of Congress, and leave staffers alone,” Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News on Monday. “The members make the final decision and are responsible for them, not staffers.”
Gowdy and Nunes are accusing the DOJ of orchestrating “anonymous attacks” against a key staffer who’s been an integral part of questioning the DOJ’s and FBI’s tactics used in the Russia probe. The accusations come after the GOP reps met with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and FBI officials last Friday and a weekend New York Times report that used anonymous sources to claim that Rosenstein felt “misled” by Nunes’ staff over House IC investigator Kash Patel’s trip to London in 2017.
The Times report said Rosenstein was questioning whether Patel was attempting to question Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the infamous anti-Trump dossier that was commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.
DOJ spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores pushed back on rumors there is a growing rift between the Dept. of Justice and the House Intel Committee.
“As Deputy Attorney General [Rod] Rosenstein has said repeatedly, we don’t put a lot of stock in anonymous sources over here and we are committed to continuing to work with Chairmen Gowdy and Nunes to accommodate their requests,” she said.
Nunes has become one of the most persistent players in the attempt to disclose the how-and-why the Russian collusion probe was launched doesn’t look to be ending his quest for truth any time soon.
“Attacking staffers, planting false stories, and endangering national security by leaking sensitive information to the press, including information about intelligence sources – this is what the DOJ is doing,” he told Fox News.
Nunes sat down with the hosts of Fox News Channels’ Fox & Friends on Tuesday to discuss the situation further.
“We are trying to put clarity and sunlight for the American people so they know everything that happened on how this investigation began,” Nunes said.
Nunes didn’t directly to respond to a question of whether or not he believed President Trump was framed, but he did double down on the DOJ’s handling of the ongoing investigation.
“I think we had a productive meeting last week,” he said. “And really the solution here is to get the Department of Justice to just come clean with everything, provide all the documents in a timely manner. So tomorrow, we’re going to go back hopefully to the Department of Justice. They have questions that we left for them to answer for us this week. And I think we’ll have another productive session. And hopefully we begin to shine some light on this whole situation.”
Via BizPAC
