Conservatives on the House Judiciary Committee aren’t satisfied with the recent promises the Department of Justice (DOJ) has made to produce more documents related to the FBI’s decisionmaking during the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, the DOJ announced it has tapped U.S. Attorney John Lausch of the Northern District of Illinois to supervise the production of documents requested by Judiciary lawmakers.
The FBI, which has doubled its personnel working on the document production to 54 agents, also said on Monday that it will turn over 3,600 pages of documents in response to the panel’s request.
“Am I satisfied? The answer is no,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a member on the Judiciary panel, told The Hill on Monday.
Jordan, a vocal member who is eager to investigate claims of FBI surveillance abuse, said the promise is the “same baloney” they’ve heard before — “not much of an improvement.”
{mosads}”If we get the same heavily redacted [documents], what good is that?” he said, adding that a “slightly faster pace doesn’t really get the answers that the American people deserve” if the documents are unnecessarily blacked out.
Frustrations reached a boiling point last Thursday when the DOJ missed the deadline of the subpoena issued by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that aimed to compel the agency to provide a tranche of documents.
Goodlatte, who is leading a joint investigation with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), is looking to obtain records that touch on a range of DOJ and FBI activity during the presidential election, including those related to the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information while secretary of State, possible surveillance abuses and the details surrounding the recent decision to fire a top FBI official.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a member of the House Oversight panel, described the appointment of Lausch as being much too late.
“While the appointment of Mr. Lausch is a small step in the right direction, it is far too little too late,” Meadows told the Hill over email.
President Trump propelled the issue further into the spotlight over the weekend by tweeting repeatedly about the DOJ’s “slow-walking” in the production of the documents, questioning what the agency is trying to hide.
Shortly thereafter, the DOJ announced the appointment of Lausch and the additional documents they will be turning over to the committee. {mosads}
“We anticipate that US Attorney John Lausch will meet with members to discuss his new role and to ensure that members are confident that the Department is producing the relevant documents completely and with integrity and professionalism,” DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told The Hill on Monday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who oversees the DOJ, was appointed by Trump. Jordan said he does not know why they have had to fight tooth and nail to get the documents while Sessions is leading the agency.
“The pace is glacial. And what they do give us, they try to hid information from us,” he said.
In a statement on Monday, Gowdy joined his colleagues in calling for the DOJ to hand over documents without redactions, adding he is struggling to understand Lausch’s “specific role” in the record production process.
“Congress has consistently been assured the production was in progress. How is injecting someone new into an ongoing review and production process calculated to expedite the process?” he asked.
“Is U.S. Attorney Lausch charged with expediting the production process of already identified documents? Is U.S. Attorney Lausch to review the universe of relevant documents to now determine what is discoverable and what is not?”
Calls for a second special counsel have grown louder and louder in recent weeks among GOP lawmakers.
Sessions last month appointed John Huber, a federal prosecutor in Utah, to investigate Republicans’ allegations that the FBI and DOJ abused a surveillance program in getting a warrant against a former Trump campaign aide.
Despite Huber’s appointment, Jordan said only a second special counsel can get to the bottom of the matter because the two attorneys will report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was involved in some of the decisions made during the election.
“Who does Huber answer to? Who does Lausch answer to? They all answer to [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein. Rod Rosenstein is someone who signed some of these FISA applications. So can these employees really investigate the boss?” Jordan told The Hill.
Rosenstein, who is also overseeing the federal investigation into Russia interference, has increasingly become a Republican target.
“Rod Rosenstein’s actions to this point clearly demonstrate that he has no serious intention to comply with Congressional oversight efforts. His decision to outsource the decision making to a U.S. prosecutor will do very little, if anything, to change that,” Meadows told The Hill.
GOP Judiciary lawmakers say after months of issuing requests, they have only received about 3,000 out of the roughly 1.2 million documents they are seeking — a flashpoint that also led members to begin criticizing Goodlatte’s leadership on the matter last month.
“Dating back as far as January, through phone and written requests, the demands for additional quality document productions have been largely ignored,” Meadows said.
One committee aide told The Hill last week that the struggle over the records will continue until they receive the necessary documents for their investigation.
“Until DOJ gets serious about providing Congress the adequate resources to conduct real oversight, there will continue to be problems,” one committee aide told The Hill on Thursday.
Democrats have criticized the Goodlatte-Gowdy probe as a partisan attempt to distract or even undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
When Goodlatte announced his plans to subpoena for documents, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y), the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, criticized the chairman for trying to pull attention away from the “chaos” surrounding the Trump administration.
–This report was updated at 1:52 p.m.