Rep. Devin Nunes announced late Wednesday that his panel, the House Intelligence Committee, appears to have reached an agreement with the Justice Department to gain access to “all” documents and witnesses it sought by a deadline at the end of the day.
“After speaking to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein this evening, I believe the House Intelligence Committee has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice that will provide the committee with access to all the documents and witnesses we have requested,” Nunes, R-Calif., said in a brief statement. “The committee looks forward to receiving access to the documents over the coming days.”
The announcement came hours after FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Capitol Hill.
Though a spokesperson for Ryan would not reveal the subject of the meeting, it came as Republican lawmakers demanded that the federal agencies turn over documents to the House Intelligence panel about the Trump-Russia collusion probe.
The Justice Department declined to comment when asked by Business Insider about Nunes’ statement.
Nunes last week condemned the DOJ and the FBI for their “failure to fully produce” documents related to the infamous Trump dossier in response to subpoenas sent earlier in 2017.
“Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI’s intransigence with respect to the Aug. 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Nunes wrote in a scathing letter to Rosenstein.
“As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters,” Nunes added.
Nunes demanded records and available dates for witnesses to testify be given to Congress by Jan. 3., threatening to introduce a contempt of Congress resolution if his request had not been met.
The dossier was put together by former British spy Christopher Steele. It was commissioned by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm whose efforts were funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The dossier contains a number of salacious and unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia.
Republicans have expressed concern that the dossier led to the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Nunes has accused the FBI and DOJ of a “months-long pattern … of stonewalling and obstructing this committee’s oversight work.”
Those accusations boiled over last month after stories were leaked to the New York Times and Washington Post that FBI agent Peter Strzok, a key investigator in the Trump-Russian probe, was removed from the Russia probe after exchanging text messages critical of Trump with another FBI agent with whom he was involved with romantically.
Republicans had been seeking information about why he was removed but were never told anything by FBI or Justice Department directly.
Beyond Strzok, the House Intelligence Committee has also sought testimony from other DOJ and FBI officials, including FBI Attorney James Baker and Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official demoted earlier in December for not disclosing meetings with Fusion GPS representatives and who is married to a former employee of the firm behind the dossier.
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