Under heavy pressure from House Intel committee, DOJ finally releases Russia document

by WorldTribune Staff, April 12, 2018

Under warning of impeachment, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on April 11 provided the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence a two-page document that helped initiate special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

From left, Rep. Devin Nunes, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray

In an April 10 interview on Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle”, Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to potentially impeach Rosenstein and FBI Directory Christopher Wray if they refused to turn over a clean version of the 2016 FBI memo.

The Department of Justice provided the document after Nunes, California Republican, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, met with Rosenstein.

On April 4, Nunes had sent a letter to Rosenstein and Wray demanding an un-redacted copy what is known as the Electronic Communication (EC), as well as access to applications for surveillance warrants against President Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser, Carter Page. Nunes set April 11 as the deadline for production of the EC.

A Justice Department officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation that all members of the Intelligence Committee were provided with access to a lightly redacted version of the EC.

“Remaining redactions are narrowly tailored to protect the name of a foreign country and the name of a foreign agent,” the official said.

“These words must remain redacted after determining that revealing the words could harm the national security of the American people by undermining the trust we have with this foreign nation,” the official continued, adding that the Justice Department believes that the production of the EC and 1,000 additional pages of classified materials has “substantially satisfied” Nunes’ initial subpoena.

Nunes said last month he had been denied a clean copy of the document.

“On March 14, Committee investigators were given access to a still heavily redacted version of the EC, which – as I informed Director Wray the next day via phone – was unsatisfactory,” Nunes said.

Fox News reported that the memo “was likely drafted by, or with input from,” FBI Agent Peter Strzok in July 2016. Mueller removed Strzok from the investigation after anti-Trump texts between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page were discovered.

Rep. Mark Meadows told reporters on April 11 that impeaching Rosenstein and Wray was a possibility.

Meadows, North Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that “Hopefully they will comply long before we have to go that route, but it is in the tool box that we have there. Certainly contempt of Congress is the first step.”


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