The Department of Justice is going to let Congressional leaders see more materials related to the FBI's use of a confidential informant to speak with members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
The move comes as Republican congressional leaders are publicly disputing Trump's claims that the government planted a spy in his 2016 campaign "to help Crooked Hillary win" — a reference to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Three senior Republicans who have been briefed on the matter, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have now said they have not seen evidence that the FBI acted inappropriately. Still, Ryan said Wednesday that there is "more digging to do."
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Late Wednesday evening, a senior Justice Department official said the department and the FBI would offer another briefing to lawmakers — the third briefing after two last month — to the so-called "Gang of 8," which includes congressional leaders from both parties and the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees. The official said they would provide new materials and also "the documents that were available for review but not inspected by the members at the previous briefing."
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The Justice Department official said the new briefing would happen Monday or Tuesday, depending on members' schedules, and that DOJ is prepared to "brief members on certain questions specifically raised by Ryan and other members."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) says he has no idea why this third briefing is happening.
On Thursday, after the Justice Department offered the new briefing, Burr said "I have a hard time figuring out what else they could produce."
He said the department had brought documents to the previous briefing, but "I didn't need to look at them because I knew what they were."
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) released a statement slamming the DOJ decision.
“In 2016, the Department of Justice broke with past practice by making investigative files in the Clinton email investigation available to Congress. At the time, I said that what was being done in the name of transparency would soon come to be known by another name — mistake.
“Now, the DOJ is about to repeat this error by sharing investigative materials with Congress concerning another ongoing matter. This is all the more alarming when Republicans in Congress are requesting these materials not for legitimate oversight, but to obtain them for the President’s legal defense team. The President’s personal lawyer has acknowledged as much, and that he fully expects to get access to the materials provided to Congress.
“After the Speaker conceded only yesterday that the President’s claims of embedded spies were false, the further disclosure of investigative materials is inexplicable. The DOJ is now reinforcing a precedent it will have to live with, whether the Congress is in Republican or Democratic hands, of providing materials in pending or closed cases to the legislative branch upon request.”
Schiff was one of four Democratic congressional leaders who sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Tuesday asking for assurances the DOJ would not let the president – a subject of the investigation – or his legal team see classified material related to the ongoing investigation.
DOJ offers new briefing as lawmakers dispute Trump spy claim (AP)
Justice Department offers lawmakers new material on FBI’s Russia investigation (WaPo)
Intel Committee Ranking Member Schiff Statement on DOJ (press release)