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by Mary Clare Jalonick and Chad Day | WASHINGTON – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said Thursday that he was not backing the efforts of a group of eleven conservative lawmakers to dismiss deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the head of the Special advocate. A Trump-Russia survey.
At a press conference, Ryan said that Rosenstein's trips back and forth with congressional Republicans on requests for documents did not reach the level of "crimes and misdemeanors." 19659006] "I do not think we should be cavalier with this process or with this term," said Ryan. He also said that he was encouraged by the progress made on the production of documents.
Ryan made these comments a day after the House Republican group escalated its conflict with the Justice Department by filing charges against Rosenstein. Their move late Wednesday came after months of criticism targeting the department – and the Russian investigation in particular – of President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. Trump fumed about Mueller's probe and repeatedly called it a "witch hunt", a refrain picked up by some lawmakers. The impeachment efforts are led by North Carolina representative Mark Meadows, who speaks frequently to Trump and often defends him in front of his colleagues.
Meadows said Thursday morning that he would not try to force an immediate vote on the impeachment resolution. could use procedural maneuvers to do this. The House leaves Thursday afternoon for a five-week suspension
It is unclear whether the party would have enough support to adopt its resolution if a vote was taken. In addition to Ryan, Republican leaders have not signed the effort and are not likely to support it.
Yet some leaders might use resolution as leverage.
"It is very clear that the DOJ must provide information because the House of Representatives has the responsibility to oversee," said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Jim Jordan and the other Republicans who introduced the resolution criticized Rosenstein and the Justice Department officials as not being responsive enough that the House committees requested documents related to the beginning of the 39 Russian investigation and a closed survey on the emails of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The five articles would accuse Rosenstein of "high crimes and misdemeanors" for failing to provide information to committees. Department provided lawmakers with over 800,000 documents, and to sign on what some Republicans say was that I The resolution also goes directly after Rosenstein for his role in the ongoing Mueller investigation, criticizing him for refusing to produce a memo that describes the scope of this survey and to ask if the investigation has begun on the legitimacy grounds. Mueller investigates Russian interference in the 2016 elections and whether the Trump campaign was in any way involved.
It is very unusual, if not unprecedented, for lawmakers to require documents that are part of an on-going criminal investigation. With Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, has faced dozens of angry Republicans at a hearing in the House last month. Legislators have alleged prejudices to the FBI and suggested the department conspired against Trump – but many could trace the line to dismissal.
"Impeachment is a punishment, it's not a cure," said Trey Gowdy. "If you are looking for documents, then you want compliance, and you want everything that drives you toward compliance."
Rep. Mark Walker, RN.C., head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said it's "obvious" that leadership does not support the effort.
"They feel that the moment is probably not the best," Walker said.
The impeachment resolution came about two hours after the GOP lawmakers met with justice department officials about the documents. Meadows said after this meeting that there was still "frustration" about how the department handled the monitoring requests.
Republican leaders, however, said in recent weeks that they were pleased with the progress of the Justice Department. Gowdy said after the meeting that he was satisfied with the efforts of the department
Meadows runs the Conservative Caucus of Freedom and has fought with Ryan on issues such as immigration and spending federal. His open threat to trigger a vote on impeachment – which he can do if he follows a number of procedural rules – could help him get concessions on other contentious issues. before the House.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said she was commenting on the indictment. Rosenstein has overseen the investigation into Russia since last year when Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew from the investigation following his meeting with the Russian Ambbadador
Democrats have criticized Republican efforts to pressure the Ministry of Justice.
In a joint statement, key Democrats in the Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform and Intelligence Committees described this initiative as "a panicked and dangerous attempt to undermine an on-going criminal investigation to to protect President Trump. the walls are closing around him and his badociates.
Up to here, the special advocate has accused 32 people and three companies. This includes four Trump campaign advisers and 12 Russian intelligence officers
Jerrold Nadler of New York, Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Adam Schiff of California said that Rosenstein "is one of the few restrictions against the excesses of the President and "
In addition to Meadows and Jordan, the Republican lawmakers who sponsored the indictment articles are: Georgia's Reps Jody Hice, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Bill Posey of Florida and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
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Associate authors Alan Fram and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report
Associated Press All rights reserved, this document can not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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