Trump says DOJ is "slow walking" congressional document requests
President Trump, who is at the White House all weekend with no events on his public schedule, unleashed his Twitter account against the Department of Justice and FBI on Saturday afternoon, claiming they are "slow-walking" congressional document requests.
Mr. Trump assailed the DOJ for missing a Thursday deadline for handing over "UNREDACTED Documents" about abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the FBI, fired FBI Director James Comey, fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Hillary Clinton's emails "and much more."
Mr. Trump appears to be referring to a subpoena House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., issued two weeks ago for DOJ documents after some Republicans on the committee felt the department was being too slow in accommodating their requests for records surrounding the FBI's handling of events around the 2016 presidential election. The deadline for that subpoena was Thursday at noon.
"Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more. Slow walking - what is going on? BAD!" Mr. Trump tweeted Saturday.
"What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren't they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!" he continued in a separate tweet.
Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more. Slow walking - what is going on? BAD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018
What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018
Republicans were indeed frustrated when they didn't receive the documents on time.
Rep. Mark Meadows, the North Carolina Republican who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, called the production failure, "unacceptable."
The deadline for the subpoena issued by Chairman Goodlatte was today at noon. We got no documents from the Department of Justice. Just a phone call.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) April 5, 2018
This is unacceptable--it's time to stop the games. Turn over the documents to Congress and allow us to conduct oversight.
But FBI Director Christopher Wray announced last week that he is doubling the staff working on the House Judiciary Committee's request.