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While Democrats have vowed to investigate the subpoenas, the GOP is almost unified in its response: The government should investigate leaks of classified information, even members of the opposite political party as long as inside of the limitations of the law. And they said that also applies to Democratic presidents.
If you are leaking, I don’t care what your motives are or who you are, you should be investigated for there to be a friend of the president or not a friend of the president, Rep. Chris Stewart (R- The Utah), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. I hope I can say the same thing about President Biden. If he is investigating Devin Nunes and he has a reason, let the investigation continue.
Republicans want to let the Justice Department’s internal watchdog finish its work, along with House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) last week proved the importance of an outside conclusion on “if there is any overreach.”
The Justice Department’s oversight to find the source of the leak linked to the investigation of Trump’s ties with Russia has swept away at least three prominent personnel the former president considered his political opponents, including the House Intelligence Committee. Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) And Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Who sat on that panel. The shooting leak subpoenas, first reported by The New York Times this month, ignited a fire as Democrats called for testimony if Trump may have abused his power.
House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 20, 2021. | Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo
“What the administration, the Department of Justice, the leadership of the former President has done is beyond Richard Nixon, Pelosi told CNN last week.
One of the only Republicans to join him in criticizing the Trump Justice Department’s behavior is himself under investigation by a federal sex trafficking investigation.
The DOJ has a very ugly habit of targeting its critics, Rep. Said. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) In a statement last month. I will stand by it all, no matter how much I like Schiff.
No GOP lawmakers acknowledged that their data was swept away in the investigation.
Many, like Stewart and Cheney, have made it clear that no president should use government powers strictly to follow political enemies. But the lack of sympathy among House Intelligence Committee Republicans for what Schiff and Swalwell are going through recalls the bitter polarization that enveloped the panel in 2017 as it investigated whether members of the Trump campaign or the candidate himself sought to promote election levels.
Also then, Republicans said, the committee began to leak like a sieve a trend they said continued through House Democrats who first inquired into the impeachment of Trump’s contacts in Ukraine in 2019.
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There was nothing literally sacred in that room, the former Rep. Said. Tom Rooney, of Florida, who served as a senior Republican on the panel during the investigation in Russia before retiring in 2018.
Tensions continued into 2019, when the GOP blamed Schiff for sweeping Rep. Phone records. Devin Nunes of California, the leading Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, on Trump’s first impeachment. A committee spokesman at the time denied that investigators had subpoenaed call records for any member of Congress or reporter.
That experience left Republicans focused on investigating the leak of classified information.
Anyone who allegedly leaks information will be investigated, whichever law enforcement, if that is a member of Congress. No one is above the law, Rep. Said. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), A former FBI special agent and member of the Intelligence Committee.
The current turmoil over Trump-era subpoenas leaves many unanswered questions, including the number of people whose communications data has been mined, whether investigators warned supervisors after the names of legislators on records obtained by subpoena and whether other companies have been subpoenaed for this information as part of the hunt.
Under fellow Attorneys General Jeff Session and Bill Barr, the Justice Department aggressively pursued Trump’s leak investigations. Another reported target was former White House adviser Don McGahn, who gave primary testimony in Russia’s former Special Adviser Robert Muellers investigation. Multiple journalists were also targeted.
Don McGahn listens as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. | Photo by Saul Loeb / AP
Democrats are pushing full scrutiny into the investigations, calling to hear from Barr and Session who both denied knowledge of the secret subpoenas as well as other Trump administration officials, such as the former Deputy Attorney General. Rod Rosenstein.
“It’s a severe abuse of the Justice Department’s freedom, and we don’t know how far they’ve run, Schiff told CBS’ “Face the Nation on Sunday. And our new Attorney General should find out.
And as there is no doubt in their Democratic investigations, many Republicans acknowledge that if the situation is returned to the Biden administration investigating members of their party’s House Intelligence Committee will be outraged.
If we apply one standard for one administration and another standard for another side or the other will get angry. I think that’s just human nature. So, definitely natural DC, Rep. Said. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), An Intelligence panel member.
I think there is an Intelligence Committee politicization in the House, unfortunately. “
Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.
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