Raskin speech during strzok grilling7/25/2023 ![]() Meadows did not deny Democratic assertions that the document requests were related to efforts to undercut Mueller's probe. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, one of the strongest GOP critics of the Republican-led Justice Department, and Jim Jordan of Ohio were behind the nonbinding resolution. The inspector general criticized the officials for creating an appearance of impropriety through those messages but did not find evidence that bias had tainted the final decisions of prosecutors in the Clinton investigation. On Wednesday, lawmakers spent hours behind closed doors grilling Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who worked on both the Clinton and Russia investigations and traded anti-Trump text messages with an FBI lawyer. The hearing followed weeks of Republican attacks on the Justice Department and allegations of bias within the FBI. ![]() Both investigations unfolded during the presidential election, causing the FBI - which prides itself on independence - to become entangled in presidential politics in ways that are continuing to shake out. Thursday's hearing came as the House passed a resolution demanding the department turn over thousands of documents by July 6 on FBI investigations into Clinton's private email use and Trump campaign ties to Russia. When asked in the hearing about the president's tweet, Rosenstein responded: "I'm not aware of any disqualifying conflict of interest." In an audio recording Donald Trump discusses a ‘highly confidential' document with an interviewer Trump weighed in Thursday morning on the ongoing investigation, wondering on Twitter, "When is Bob Mueller going to list his Conflicts of Interest? Why has it taken so long?" ![]() "Whatever you've got," he added, "finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart." Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, said of the investigation. They seized on the inspector general report to allege bias against the president by the FBI and to discredit an investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign that is now led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee suggested the department has conspired against Trump by refusing to turn over documents they believe would show improper conduct by the FBI. The hearing was Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's first appearance before Congress since an internal Justice Department report criticized the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and revealed new disparaging text messages among FBI officials about President Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Republicans accused top federal law enforcement officials Thursday of withholding important documents from them and demanded details about surveillance tactics during the Russia investigation in a contentious congressional hearing that capped days of mounting partisan complaints.
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