Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is firing a warning shot at the FBI following his request that the agency hand over any evidence relating to wire taps of President Trump.
“They’re about to screw up big time if they keep running to the [Intelligence] Committee and not answer that letter,” the South Carolina told reporters,
according to NBC News.
Graham and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey and Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general, asking them to hand over any potential applications for a warrant to wiretap the Trump campaign or related court documents.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is also probing Russian meddling in the presidential election and any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“We have jurisdiction over the FBI,”
Graham noted, according to CBS News. “I like Director Comey a lot. But … all things legal come through the Judiciary Committee.”
He said if the FBI doesn’t provide copies of any relevant warrant applications or court orders, “I would say that we need a joint select committee because the regular order is not working.”
The two senators—the top members on a Judiciary subcommittee on crime and terrorism—did not include a deadline for the officials to hand over the information in their letter.
{mosads}But Graham said Tuesday that he is still waiting for a response, and would announce next steps on Wednesday.
His subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing that day digging into “Russian efforts to undermine democracies.”
Comey met with top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), late last week. He also briefed the full committee during a closed-door meeting last month.
Graham has warned that he will subpoena evidence on Trump’s wiretapping claim if necessary.
“All I can say is that the country needs an answer to this,” Graham told CNN earlier this month. “The current president has accused the former president of basically wiretapping his campaign.”
Trump appeared to catch lawmakers off guard when he tweeted recently, without offering any evidence, that that former President
Barack Obama had ordered a wiretap on his campaign.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” he wrote.
The Trump administration has said that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees should fold his claim into their larger investigations.
The administration missed a House Intelligence Committee deadline on Monday, asking for more time to comply with the request for evidence substantiating Trump’s claims of wiretapping.
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