House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo yesterday. According to the write-up by Fox Business,
If the FBI does not turn over more than one million missing documents related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte plans to subpoena the federal spy agency.
“We need to have those documents,” Rep. Goodlatte (R-Va.) told Maria Bartiromo Sunday on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The department and the bureau have been slow, very slow, in getting them to us.”
Over the course of the last year, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been reviewing the FBI and DOJ’s actions related to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server, which haunted her during the 2016 presidential election. Horowitz suggested the report will be made available to lawmakers in April. Horowitz’s team has interviewed dozens of people and reviewed about 1.2 million records during the investigation, but said the classified information involved has slowed the process. So far, Congress has only seen a “tiny percentage” of the texts and documents – 3,000 of 1.2 million that were procured, he said.
“And that’s regrettable, because while the work of the inspector general is important, and we’re looking forward to seeing his report, his responsibility and the Congress’ responsibilities in conducting oversight over the nation’s most important, premier law enforcement is also important,” Goodlatte said.
The review is intended to determine whether the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Peter Kadzik “improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign,” and therefore should have been recused from the original investigation. Kadzik previously worked as an attorney for Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The investigation already has made waves in Washington, D.C.: Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Friday night, reportedly because Horowitz had determined that McCabe was not forthcoming in regard to the handling of the FBI’s probe into Clinton’s email usage, leaked information to the media and had ties to the Democratic Party.
McCabe denied the accusations, and warned in a lengthy statement that it was politically motivated because he corroborated former FBI Director James Comey’s claims that Trump tried to pressure him into ending the Russia probe.
“Those are very serious concerns, and they tie into the overall concern about how the FBI handled investigations into the elections last year,” Goodlatte said. “The steps are appropriate.”
The inspector general’s review also uncovered anti-Trump texts sent by FBI official Peter Strzok, who called Trump an “idiot” and wrote that they “can’t take the risk” of a Trump victory.
Although the FBI removed Strzok, a member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Strzok was, at one point, instrumental. He interviewed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and during the presidential campaign, interviewed several Hillary Clinton staffers — including Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills — about her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
The full video of the interview is below. The part where they start discussing the missing documents, is around the 2:15 mark. Enjoy! 🙂
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