Senators are locked in a turf battle as they plot their way forward in dueling investigations on Russian election interference.
Two Senate panels — the Judiciary and Intelligence committees — are conducting separate probes into the 2016 White House race, ties between President Trump’s team and Moscow, and former FBI Director James Comey’s firing.
But with new allegations against the administration leaking almost daily, the two committees are increasingly bumping elbows as they fight for the same information.
Leaders on the Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the FBI, say their requests for information are being stonewalled. Comey declined to testify publicly before their panel.
“We’re trying to get [Comey] before the Senate Judiciary Committee but we haven’t had any luck,” committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters during a conference call. “Of course we could subpoena him but we don’t want to make that move until we have to.”
Grassley and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) also want the FBI to hand over any of Comey’s memos, and have requested either Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe brief their committee.
A spokesman for Grassley didn’t respond to a request for comment on if the committee had heard back on either requests. But Feinstein said this week that they hadn’t gotten a response to their call for memos on Comey’s meetings with Trump and other top officials.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe hasn’t had such setbacks. Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) were given broad subpoena authority and issued the latest round against Michael Flynn, Trump’s ousted national security advisor.
They’ve scored a major victory in getting Comey to agree to testify, had McCabe speak before their committee and met privately with Rosenstein.
Burr and Warner, who have the public backing of Senate leadership, remain tight lipped about closed-door deliberations but have started giving impromptu press conferences after Intelligence Committee meetings and are frequently mobbed by reporters in the Capitol.
But Grassley and Feinstein warn their committee won’t be sidelined. The two have sent out a flurry of statements noting their committee has jurisdiction over the FBI.
“I think we perhaps need to do more than just invite [Comey]. I think it’s important that he come before the oversight committee … and at least do us the courtesy of appearing and that we should be able to look at his material and ask questions about them,” Feinstein told PBS.
Grassley echoed that in a recent tweetstorm, saying the “Judiciary Com must continue FBI oversight even w [Special] Counsel Can’t wait months for Mueller report Judiciary needs to know [sic].”
The Senate Judiciary Committee isn’t the only panel having trouble getting information.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also requested Comey’s memos but said in a letter to McCabe that “the FBI is withholding those documents, citing to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special prosecutor.”
Grassley has a penchant for using the Senate’s rulebook to pressure officials into handing over information. He warned he would hold up Rosenstein’s nomination until Comey briefed him. The gamble paid off when the former official met with him and Feinstein a day later.
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Senate committees locked in a turf battle over separate Trump-Russia probes https://t.co/0M1hVQUHld pic.twitter.com/3pC2SNdJVr
— The Hill (@thehill) May 30, 2017
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