Dems call for release of Strzok interview transcript

Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) and Elijah Cummings (Md.) demanded on Wednesday that Republicans release the full unclassified transcript of FBI agent Peter Strzok’s interview before Congress.

The two Democrats made the demand after GOP lawmakers repeatedly asked Strzok about special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

Nadler and Cummings, the ranking members of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees, respectively, claimed that Republican lawmakers had broken their past promises to not interfere with Mueller’s probe by questioning Strzok about the investigation.

The lawmakers said that Republicans asked more than 200 questions about Mueller and the FBI’s probes into Russia’s election interference, and more than 30 questions about Strzok’s conversations with Mueller and his team.

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They said the Republicans asked less than five questions about Russia’s election interference in 2016, and no questions about possible Russian meddling in the midterms or any discussions between Trump and former FBI Director James Comey on ending or interfering the Russia probe.

The lawmakers also included some of the questions asked of Strzok by Republicans on the committees, including Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-Utah).

Meadows asked if Strzok had in July received “any information from confidential human sources given to you as it relates to the Russia investigation?,” according to the Democrats.

Jordan asked questions surrounding the so-called Steele dossier, including if Strzok had spoken with the dossier’s author Christopher Steele or Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.

And Gowdy asked if Strzok was a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

“This investigation is a political charade—a platform to elevate far-right conspiracy theories and undermine the Special Counsel’s ongoing criminal investigation of the President and his campaign aides, which has already produced five guilty pleas and criminal charges against 23 individuals and entities,” Nadler said in a statement.

Cummings said in a statement that the Republicans’ questions of Strzok demonstrate “that their investigation has become exactly that—an attempt to obstruct Special Counsel Mueller’s work and act as President Trump’s defense counsel.”

Strzok, who was removed from Mueller’s probe after it was revealed he sent anti-Trump text messages, testified before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees last month.

Former FBI agent Lisa Page, who had an affair with Strzok and exchanged texts with him regarding Trump, did not appear for interviews with lawmakers on Wednesday after receiving a congressional subpoena to testify before the same two committees.

Her attorney pushed back against claims that Page was defying the subpoena, saying she was unable to review paperwork necessary to her testimony and that a new time for a interview would be arranged.