Dem leaders request bipartisan meeting on Russia probe

The top two Democrats in Congress are demanding that senior members of both parties be invited to any briefing from law enforcement officials on information related to the federal Russia probe.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a letter on Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein saying that if they are intent on holding a meeting it should be with the “Gang of Eight,” which includes top Democrats and Republicans in both chambers and senior members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees. 

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“If you have determined in your best judgment that Justice Department participation in the meeting is the only way to prevent this situation from devolving into an outright constitutional crisis, then we believe you must insist on the only appropriate mechanism for highly sensitive briefings that might implicate intelligence sources and methods — a bipartisan Gang of Eight briefing,” Schumer and Pelosi wrote.

The letter comes a day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that no Democrats were invited to the meeting, scheduled for Thursday, about a confidential FBI source who has emerged as a lightning rod for controversy in the Russia probe.

Instead, Sanders said, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) will meet with Wray, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and top Justice Department official Ed O’Callaghan.

Schumer and Pelosi added in their letter that the meeting, as it is currently set up, would be “completely improper” and would create the appearance of the president trying to leak national security secrets.

“Such a meeting would be highly irregular and inappropriate during any open criminal or counterintelligence investigation, much less one involving the president,” they wrote.

In addition to Democrats, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and GOP Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), both members of the panel, sent a letter to Rosenstein and White House chief of staff John Kelly asking that they be included in the meeting with Nunes and Gowdy.

President Trump and his allies have been pushing in recent days for more details about the FBI source, who apparently met with several Trump campaign aides during the 2016 presidential race.