House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler engaged in a war of words Thursday, prior to the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christoper A. Wray.
But the committee recessed before either senior Department of Justice official had an opportunity to speak. The recess was called so members could discuss a resolution to prod the Justice Department to turn over documents related to the Russia investigation.
Mr. Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, said the Justice Department’s refusal to provide documents has hampered their efforts to probe whether political bias influenced any of the investigations surrounding the 2016 election.
“We are not receiving and have not received potentially enlighten communications …,” Mr. Goodlatte said. “This is unacceptable, particularly when we had, long before issuing the subpoena, requested all documents provided to the inspector general other than certain ones pertaining to grand jury material.”
Mr. Nadler, New York Democrat, accused the Republicans of playing politics. He called the document battle an effort by Republicans to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and distract the media from the separation of migrant children from their families at the border.
“[T]he fight over document production seems to have boiled down to certain documents that the Republicans know the Department of Justice cannot turn over — much of it evidence related to an ongoing criminal investigation and the identities of confidential human sources still working in the undercover field,” he said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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