After months of threatening Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Trump allies Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) finally have filed articles of impeachment against the man overseeing the special counsel's Russia investigation.
Meadows and Jordan claim the Department of Justice is withholding documents.
“The DOJ is keeping information from Congress. Enough is enough. It’s time to hold Mr. Rosenstein accountable for blocking Congress’s constitutional oversight role,” Jordan charged in a statement.
“The stonewalling over this last year has been just as bad or worse than under the Obama administration. Multiple times we’ve caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas,” Meadows added.
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Republicans have sought a wide range of Justice Department materials related to the investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as well as the Russia investigation. Republicans have accused the Justice Department and the FBI of dragging their feet in turning over documents, missing deadlines, and of over-redacting documents to conceal information from Congress.
The articles of impeachment accuse Rosenstein of failing to appoint a second special counsel to review the FBI’s actions in the Russia probe — a demand some Republicans have been making for months. They note that Rosenstein himself could be a witness to elements of Mueller’s investigation and argue he should recuse himself. Subsequent articles fault Rosenstein for refusing to provide certain documents and concealing others, allegations the Justice Department has sharply denied.
The articles of impeachment also chastise Rosenstein for refusing to share with lawmakers the memo outlining the scope of Mueller’s investigation. The Justice Department has refused that request on the grounds that it would impede the ongoing probe.
The Justice Department has said it has made every effort to meet lawmakers’ demands, but also that some of the information sought was properly redacted in order to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations. In April, Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray tapped Chicago US Attorney John Lausch to oversee the production of documents to the House Judiciary Committee about the Clinton email investigation and other matters, and Wray in March had announced that he was doubling the number of staff working to fulfil congressional requests.
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At least one Democrat was quick to denounce the introduction of the articles of impeachment. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, accusing the Republicans of filing them in “bad faith” and a demonstration of the “extraordinary lengths to which House Republicans will go to protect Trump."
“History will record these Members as willing accomplices in the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation,” Schiff tweeted.
“The American people have had enough of this manufactured crisis and Republicans’ continuing efforts to undermine Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “Will [House Republicans] side with Putin or the American people, the rule of law and our democracy?”
House Conservatives Introduced Articles Of Impeachment Against The Deputy Attorney General (BuzzFeed News)