House Speaker Paul Ryan accused the executive branch on Wednesday of stonewalling Congress from obtaining documents related to the Trump dossier.
“I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to learn through the media information that Congress has been requesting for months,” Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said at a Reuters event.
Mr. Ryan was referring to the story in the Washington Post on Tuesday that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign helped fund the research that launched the dossier.
According to the report, the firm paid to conduct the research was retained in April 2016 by Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The firm, Fusion GPS, hired a former British spy with ties to the FBI to conduct the research.
But Mr. Ryan said congressional members requested to see the documents highlighted in the Washington Post story long before the report was published.
“We’ve had these document requests out there for some time,” he said.
Mr. Ryan said congressional members requested the documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice, but said they did not comply with the request.
He added that he does not want to prejudge the documents or investigation, but said that the agencies should not delay turning documents over to Congress.
“We should have an executive branch that complies,” he said.
— Andrea Noble contributed to this report.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.