Schiff, Nunes pressed DOJ for Mueller briefing

The top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee made a bipartisan request last month for the Justice Department and FBI to brief the panel on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a rare moment of unity for a committee marked by partisan acrimony.

Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) issued a joint letter to Attorney General William Barr, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray in late March calling on the officials to keep the panel “fully informed” of the probe’s findings, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill.

{mosads}The two requested that “all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced by the Special Counsel’s Office in the course of the investigation,” including “any US. government contacts with any person formally or informally associated with the Trump campaign; and raw reporting or finished analysis involving intelligence or counterintelligence-related information,” according to the letter, which was first reported by The Daily Beast on Monday.

Schiff and Nunes also asked for details about the scope of the sprawling probe, which spanned 22 months and examined Russia’s 2016 election interference, as well as the possibility of obstruction of justice.

Nunes, who chaired the Intelligence Committee in the last Congress, and Schiff, a vocal Trump critic, have publicly butted heads repeatedly over the past two years.

Last month, Nunes, joined by all the other GOP members of the panel, called on Schiff to step down as chairman, pointing to comments in which he stated that there was evidence of collusion or coordination between members of the Trump campaign and Russia.

Their letter came shortly after Barr sent a public, four-page letter to leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees detailing the principal findings of Mueller’s report, which found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Bar also said there was not enough evidence to charge President Trump for obstruction of justice, even after declined to make a call on the matter either way. 

The Intelligence panel is jockeying for a briefing at the same time the House Judiciary Committee is seeking the testimony of Barr, pending the release of a redacted Mueller report, which is expected to be provided to Congress on Thursday, a Justice Department spokeswoman told The Hill on Monday.

Schiff and Nunes argue that their panel must review such materials from the counterintelligence probe because the committee has jurisdiction over intelligence and counterintelligence matters.

“As the congressional committee of the House of Representatives charged with oversight of intelligence and counterintelligence matters, the Committee has an independent constitutional duty and express statutory right to examine the intelligence and counterintelligence information,” they write.

Barr has maintained that he won’t provide certain information to Congress, including grand jury material.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines earlier this month to authorize a subpoena if Barr provides a report that is overly redacted, potentially setting up a showdown over what information the Justice Department gives lawmakers to review.