Ryan clashes with Trump allies over Rosenstein impeachment
Conservative Republicans want to oust the man
overseeing the FBI’s Russia probe — but are running into resistance from
the House speaker.
from F
require a two-thirds vote. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Wisconsin Republican and retiring House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) have stifled conservatives’ push in recent weeks to impeach Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian contacts with Trump's 2016 campaign.
But those comments drew a swift rebuke from conservative Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who are leading the impeachment campaign and argue that Rosenstein is slow-walking their oversight of the FBI. Meadows told reporters Tuesday morning that Ryan appeared misinformed about what Justice has and has not turned over.
"I can tell you that I guess the speaker’s staff is not fully informing him of what DOJ’s actually complying with,” Meadows said.
“We’re still waiting on tens of thousands… of documents that many of the people here today have been advocating for a long time,” Meadows said. “How long do we have to wait?”
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Indeed, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say it has bolstered the importance of Mueller's probe, which led to last week’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for the 2016 hacks of the Democratic National Committee.
But Trump’s supporters on Capitol Hill are vowing to keep up the pressure on Rosenstein and are prepping an increasingly aggressive push against him for what they claim is his resistance to turning over documents connected to the FBI's Russia probe.
"All options are still on the table," said Jordan when asked about the prospect of impeaching Rosenstein. The Freedom Caucus co-founder argued that “we have caught them hiding information from us [and] redacting information that should not have been redacted.”
He added: “If that is not a sufficient reason to move forward [with impeachment], particularly when they are not in compliance with the resolution that was passed by the full House of Representatives two weeks ago, I do not know what is. … All options are still on the table.”
The conservatives' swipe at Ryan is the latest indication of a deepening split among House Republicans over their posture toward the Justice Department and FBI. Conservatives say Rosenstein is intentionally misleading them, and that he’s protecting rogue FBI agents who were out to get Trump, including FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok who exchanged anti-Trump text messages.
"Rosenstein is really helping destroy what used to be a great Justice Department, so something’s got to be done," said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
Ryan’s critiques are far more measured. He and Gowdy have been wary of attacks on law enforcement and federal agents they genuinely believe are trying to serve the country honorably. And they have viewed the dispute with DOJ as a technical “compliance” fight over documents — not an attempt at a cover-up.
“We’ve had compliance issues with the DOJ, that just goes to the legislative branch conducting oversight of the executive branch,” Ryan told reporters Tuesday. “Unfortunately, I had to get involved. It shouldn’t have to take a speaker to get involved … But they are now coming into compliance and we’re trying to close out those items.”
Democrats — and some Republicans — believe conservatives are only trying to hamper the ongoing Russia investigation, particularly as it becomes a greater threat to the president's inner circle. Leaders like Ryan and Gowdy have said over and over that Mueller should be left alone to do his job.
Ryan insists that the Justice Department has begun to move in the right direction in complying with a pair of House subpoenas for documents connected to the investigation of contacts between Russians and Trump's 2016 campaign.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and a lead legal brain for the House GOP, would not comment on whether this was the case.
But Gowdy has also frequently spoken about how pointless it is to hold executive officials in contempt because the Hill can’t enforce subpoenas. And his scorn of the idea of impeaching Rosenstein was evident in the Sunday interview.
“Impeach him for what?” Gowdy said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” when asked if he’d support the proposal. “I've had my differences with Rod Rosenstein. … But to impeach someone? I … no. … I'm not convinced there is a movement.”
Asked about Gowdy’s comments, Meadows said Gowdy and other skeptics may not have all the facts.
"Nobody understands more of what DOJ and FBI has not done than me. I promise you that," he said, noting that he has "personally made over 150 inquiries" to the Justice Department. "What Mr. Gowdy would support or wouldn’t support is not necessarily indicative of the evidence that would be made available to him."
Conservatives argue that impeachment isn’t a stretch, particularly because the House adopted a resolution last month demanding access to a wide slate of documents that had been subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.
“We had a sense of Congress vote on the House floor that said we need to have all the documents by July the sixth,” Meadows said. “Not only do we not have all the documents but since that resolution, there’s only been a few hundred documents delivered, not a few thousand.”
Meadows said Goodlatte, a close ally of GOP leaders, agrees that the Justice Department has not fully complied with his committee’s subpoena.
“The speaker’s press conference … is not consistent with what Chairman Goodlatte acknowledged to Jim and I in a private meeting a week ago,” Meadows said. “He acknowledges that they’re not in compliance, and that’s the chairman of the committee with jurisdiction!”
Goodlatte pushed back on that assertion in a statement to POLITICO.
"The Justice Department/FBI has made significant progress and produced more documents over the past several weeks,” said a Judiciary Committee aide Tuesday. “We expect the department to fully comply with the terms of the subpoena.”
Even if the House voted to impeach Rosenstein, the Senate would almost certainly not convict and remove him from office, since that would require a two-thirds vote. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in fact, told reporters that the question about impeachment was so "far-fetched" that it was "probably not worthy of comment."
But to make a point, conservatives might try to move forward anyway. After all, they were successful in pushing GOP leaders to adopt the July resolution on document production — something many didn’t want to do.
And with Ryan as a lame duck, and his potential successors, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), vying for conservative support, they could find sympathetic ears in other GOP leadership office.
Until then, they’ll bide their time for the right moment to file their impeachment resolution, which is kept in a red folder that’s never far from Meadows’ reach.
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