FBI criticizes GOP President Goodlatte for Christmas Eve document deadline



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In a letter to Goodlatte, obtained by CNN, FBI deputy director David Bowdich warned that the publication of transcripts without appropriate redactions "would result in the disclosure of sensitive information", and suggested that the documents contain classified information.

"Your committee did not give the FBI the time it needed to do a thorough review of this important volume of confidential, sensitive, and personally identifiable information," Bowdich wrote.

Goodlatte and House Supervisory Chair Trey Gowdy retire. The Republicans hope to publish the transcripts of the interviews they conducted last year for their joint investigation into the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's investigations and Russia.

Bowdich said the FBI had received the documents for review Wednesday. and received a deadline of Monday to provide drafting or editing proposals – which he pointed out in

"We respectfully request committees to keep the transcripts of unexpurgated interviews confidential while waiting for an examination complete by the FBI, the (Justice) Department and the Special Council Office, as the case may be, "wrote Bowdich.

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. 19659002] Some of the documents that lawmakers obtained and interviewed relate to the foreign intelligence monitoring mandate issued to Trump's former campaign advisor, Carter Page, and they also investigated the beginning of the investigation. counterintelligence investigation of members of the Trump campaign.

In his letter, Bowdich noted that the topics covered included "FISA warrants and counter-intelligence investigations", warning that transcripts could contain classified information.

Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch were in attendance this week. The testimony of Comey has already been made public in the context of an agreement reached in exchange for his appearance.

Goodlatte and Gowdy did not indicate whether they were planning to publish a report to summarize their findings before their retirement. Congress. Gowdy told reporters Wednesday that he wanted transcripts of the interviews to be made public so that people could judge for themselves.

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Democrats who took control Both committees indicated that they did not plan to continue the investigation into the FBI and the Justice Department, accusing them of undermining special advocate Robert Mueller.

Goodlatte's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The FBI and the Justice Department repeatedly opposed Republican lawmakers during their investigation, Republicans claiming that the Justice Department had slowed down the processing of their requests for documents.

Several Conservative lawmakers accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of these delays and threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress unless they obtained documents that resembled them.

The same legislators sitting on committees were frustrated by the fact that Rosenstein had never appeared for an in camera interview as part of the investigation. An interview between the committee leaders and Rosenstein was scheduled for October, but was postponed and never postponed.

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