Attorney General Jeff Sessions has answered President Donald Trump's demands for America's top law enforcement agency to speed up the delivery to Congress of more than a million documents about an FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server.
The Department of Justice and the FBI asked Chicago prosecutor John Lausch to oversee the redaction and production of documents over the weekend. Many of these concern the FBI's investigation of Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.
After an investigation, then-FBI Director James Comey announced in July 2016 that the agency found Clinton and her staff were "extremely careless" in their handling of sensitive government emails but hadn't committed any chargeable offense.
This March, the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for 1.2 million documents connected to the investigation and other matters—including potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the investigation of the Trump campaign and the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The committee's chairman, Republican Representative Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, said last month that just a few thousand documents have been delivered following his original requests last year. The subpoena is part of a joint investigation with the House Oversight Committee.
"What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren't they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE?" Trump asked in a tweet on Saturday. The president accused top law enforcement of "stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!"
What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018
In a follow-up tweet, Trump cited a Fox News host who called the FBI's Clinton probe a "rigged investigation."
During the 2016 campaign, Trump called Clinton "Crooked Hillary" and suggested she should have been charged with a crime by the FBI over her handling of government emails.
After the election, Trump said he would not pursue an investigation of Clinton. Yet his calls to have her and Democrats investigated have increased as the Russia probe of the Trump campaign's ties to the Kremlin's election interference has progressed.
FBI Director Christopher Wray bumped up the number of staffers handling the committee's records request from 27 to 54 at the end of March. He said they would work in shifts from 8 a.m. to midnight. The Justice Department expects to deliver 3,600 pages to the committee on Monday.
Lausch's appointment will have him oversee the speedy processing of documents and verifying whether redactions are necessary.
"Our goal is to assure Congress, the president and the American people that the FBI is going to produce the relevant documents and will do so completely and with integrity and professionalism," said Sarah Isgur Flores, the Justice Department's top spokeswoman, in a statement Sunday.
Trump accused the Justice Department of "slow walking" the delivery of documents for the committee's investigation. "What is going on? BAD!" the president wrote in another tweet Saturday.
"Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee," he wrote, "are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more."
