Nunes Threatens Rosenstein With Impeachment

Nunes Threatens Rosenstein With Impeachment
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) speaks to reporters during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 22, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
6/18/2018
Updated:
6/18/2018

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has lost patience with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The two have been locked in a battle for several months over documents regarding the Russia collusion investigation that Nunes’s committee has sought from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ and the FBI have stonewalled requests for information, slow-walked delivering documents, heavily redacted documents, and restricted access to unredacted originals.

The breaking point for Nunes appears to have been the request for documents relating to a FBI and CIA informant who was employed to meet with three Trump campaign officials, including Carter Page.

In a meeting on June 14, Rosenstein promised delivery of the long-sought documents by June 15. They didn’t come.

On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes told host Maria Bartiromo that if the sought-after documents are not turned over by June 18, “there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Numerous press reports have identified the FBI informant as Cambridge University professor Stefan Halper. DOJ has taken the position, though, that providing documents about the informant would put his life at risk and compromise sources and methods. Independent experts have derided these claims.

Nunes said: “We can’t force the resignation, but we can hold in contempt, we can pass resolutions, we can impeach. I think we’re getting close to there.”

When asked by Bartiromo if he is ready to impeach Rosenstein, Nunes answered, “Absolutely.”

Nunes is not the only member of Congress who has lost patience with the DOJ withholding documents.

In a June 6 letter, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, complains that the response to his request for “information about the circumstances surrounding Lt. General Michael Flynn’s reported conversations with the Russian ambassador and FBI records related to those conversations is insufficient.” The reply “relies on improper excuses.”