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For more than a year House Republicans on various committees have been trying to obtain all documents pertaining to the Hillary Clinton email investigation conducted by the FBI and Justice Department, but they’ve been getting stonewalled by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and, at times, FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Rosenstein has been the biggest obstacle and the stonewalling ringleader, by far, and on Thursday members of the House Judiciary Committee blasted him and, to a lesser extent Wray, for continuing to resist their very legitimate requests for unredacted documents.
The document demands aren’t “politics” and they aren’t frivolous. We’ve know for months how much pro-Hillary, anti-Trump bias there was among many of the leading figures in that investigation, as well as the “Spygate” operation in which Trump campaign officials were put under surveillance under the guise of a phony “Russia dossier.”
As reported by The National Sentinel, things got heated on Capitol Hill during exchanges between GOP lawmakers and both DoJ officials. One exchange between Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rosenstein was particularly prickly:
The tense Q & A comes the same day the House Republicans passed a resolution demanding the DOJ comply with requests to turn over classified Trump-Russia docs or face impeachment or a contempt charge.
Jordan slammed Rosenstein and reminded him the House was voting to pass a resolution giving him “seven days to get his act together.” Rosenstein looked visibly uncomfortable at the hearing.
The deputy AG tried to defend himself and his agency for its lack of complete transparency, claiming that he had personnel “working day and night” to comply with Congress’ document requests.
Jordan reminded him, however, that lawmakers had already caught him hiding documents and keeping information from Congress. In fact, that was Jordan’s first question to Rosenstein: “Why are you keeping things from Congress?”
“That’s not accurate,” Rosenstein replied at one point.
“It is accurate,” Jordan shot back. “We’ve caught you hiding information!”
After some back and forth and panel Democrats leaping in to shield Rosenstein from Jordan’s line of questioning — only to be told, essentially, to shut up because the chair had recognized Jordan — he asked Rosenstein whether he’d ever threatened House staffers with legal proceedings. (Related: WTH? Deputy AG Rosenstein THREATENED to subpoena records from GOP lawmakers, staff in ‘personal ATTACK’.)
According to Fox News:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to “subpoena” emails, phone records and other documents from lawmakers and staff on a Republican-led House committee during a tense meeting earlier this year, according to emails reviewed by Fox News documenting the encounter and reflecting what aides described as a “personal attack.”
Rosenstein, of course, denied the report was accurate, though one staffer who felt threatened described the encounter as “chilling.”
Watch:
"Your use of this to attack me personally is deeply wrong."
Deputy AG Rosenstein hits back Rep. Jim Jordan in combative exchange that saw multiple other lawmakers intervening. https://t.co/VJbmi0BL2N pic.twitter.com/JYoRgJGUZP
— ABC News (@ABC) June 28, 2018
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., didn’t ask questions but he did make some notable statements regarding the ongoing special counsel witch hunt by Robert Mueller, and admonished the senior FBI and Justice Department officials to “finish it the hell up.”
As noted by The Gateway Pundit, Gowdy torched both officials but especially Rosenstein because he appointed Mueller (and he may even have done so without any legal basis because no crimes were alleged to have been committed by POTUS Trump or anyone on his campaign team).
“Russia attacked this country. They should be the target,” Gowdy said. “But Russia isn’t being hurt by this investigation. We are. This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided.”
He noted that Congress has seen the anti-Trump bias within the department, but now “we need to see the evidence.”
“Whatever you’ve got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart,” he said.
Rep. Trey Gowdy to Wray, Rosenstein: "If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury…Whatever you got, finish it the hell up." https://t.co/FOzOpDmxWy pic.twitter.com/K6z6DL4nIo
— ABC News (@ABC) June 28, 2018
Read more stories about the conservatives in Congress at Conservative.news.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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