Republicans from the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees are demanding an update from the U.S. attorney appointed to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and surveillance abuse in the FBI and DOJ. The congressmen claim the attorney has yet to interview a number of key witnesses.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) sent a letter to U.S. attorney for Utah John Huber and told him they were “surprised” many witnesses have yet to hear from the attorney, despite the ongoing investigation lasting over nine months.
“Your investigation has been ongoing for over nine months,” the Congressmen write. “During the course of our extensive investigation we have interviewed more than a dozen current and former DOJ and FBI personnel, and were surprised to hear none of these potentially informative witnesses testified to speaking with you.”
They continue, “Further, last month, then-chairman Mark Meadows invited you to testify as a witness at the Subcommittee on Government Operations’ hearing ‘Oversight of Nonprofit Organizations: A Case Study on the Clinton Foundation.’ We were disappointed to learn from the department that you were not enthusiastic about testifying when declining the invitation.”
The Congressmen gave Huber a deadline of January 21 to provide a response to the following inquiries:
“1) The total number of witnesses you have interviewed, including names of specific individuals where possible, and the number of witnesses remaining to be interviewed;
2)The total number of FISA applications reviewed;
3)The total number of documents reviewed, including their substance and format (e.g. emails, meeting notes, phone logs, etc); and
4)A description and account of your coordination with DOJ IG Michael Horowitz”
In March 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Huber to investigate whether or not the FBI abused its powers when obtaining a FISA warrant on former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.
The lack of communication and updates from Huber has been frustrating Republican members for months.
In October 2018, both Meadows and Jordan spoke to the Washington Times where they expressed their disappointment in the U.S. attorney.
“I would just like to know what he’s doing. I’ll take anything. All I know is that we haven’t heard a single thing about what he’s doing,” said Jordan.
Meadows said, “I have not seen a lot of evidence that Mr. Huber has done anything other than be appointed by Jeff Sessions. It’s been portrayed that he’s making great progress, but I’m not sure there is a whole lot to show for it other than rhetoric right now. I’m not aware of any substantial work that he’s doing.”
