President Trump on Monday morning said that he has “tried to stay uninvolved” with his Justice Department and the FBI but added that he questions why they have not turned over documents Congress has requested.
I have tried to stay uninvolved with the Department of Justice and FBI (although I do not legally have to), because of the now totally discredited and very expensive Witch Hunt currently going on. But you do have to ask why the DOJ & FBI aren’t giving over requested documents?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
The Justice Department did turn over thousands of the documents requested by the Republican chairmen of the House Intelligence, Judiciary, and Oversight Committees. But Republicans in the House have grown increasingly frustrated as the department stalls on releasing the rest of the documents they requested.
The documents relate to the Hillary Clinton email investigation, the FBI’s use of informants to get intelligence on the Trump campaign’s Russia connections, and the agency’s FISA court application to obtain a warrant to surveil campaign associate Carter Page.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, one of the loudest voices demanding the release of the documents, set Monday evening as the deadline for the Justice Department to turn over the rest of them.
“While the late-night letters, once again received by the Committee just before the deadline, address many of the questions outlined in the Committee’s outstanding subpoenas, they have raised more questions than answers,” Nunes wrote Sunday in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about letters the FBI sent Congress on Friday. “These questions include whether the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership intend to obey the law and fully comply with duly authorized congressional subpoenas.”