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Why was any agreement necessary? They've been under subpoena since August. Who are they protecting?

FBI, DOJ reach 'agreement' with Ryan to turn over long-demanded Steele dossier documents



FBI, DOJ reach 'agreement' with Ryan to turn over long-demanded Steele dossier documents, Devin Nunes says there's a deal. Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray aren't saying anything. It was Rosenstein and Wray who requested the meeting in Paul Ryan's office after Nunes threatened them with a contempt of Congress resolution if they wouldn't finally produce the Steele dossier and the FISA application that appears to have relied on it to obtain permission to wiretap Trump campaign official Carter Page. Are they really going to finally turn over the documents to congressional investigators who have every right to see them? Nunes seems to think so:
A source familiar with the meeting confirmed that Wray and Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel's Russia probe, were scheduled to meet with Ryan to discuss House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ recent requests for additional Justice Department documents regarding handling of the so-called Steele dossier. On Dec. 28, Nunes sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting interviews with officials and documents regarding the handling of the dossier alleging collusion between Trump and Russia, among other concerns. Nunes had previously subpoenaed the Justice Department for the documents and interviews. "Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI's intransigence with respect to the August 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated," Nunes wrote in the letter, which asked for the documents and potential dates for interviews with DOJ officials by Jan. 3. Late Wednesday, Nunes released a statement saying, “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. The committee looks forward to receiving access to the documents over the coming days.”
So many questions about this:

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  1. Why is an agreement needed at all? Congress has legitimate subpoena power over these documents, and has constitutional oversight authority over the DOJ. No negotiation is needed, and none is appropriate. The DOJ should have turned over the documents on August 24 when it first received the subpoena, no conditions required.
  2. What did Rosenstein and Wray want to tell Ryan in this meeting? That there's some legitimate reason they can't turn over the documents? And what could that possibly be? Every member of the congressional committee in question has the highest-level security clearance. There couldn't be anything in them that a member of the committee should not be allowed to see.
  3. Are Rosenstein and Wray still trying to sell the lame excuse that turning over the documents would interfere with an internal investigation by the DOJ's inspector general? Because if they tried that one on Ryan and he bought it, we need a new Speaker of the House.
  4. Why doesn't Trump simply order Rosenstein and Wray to comply with the committee's subpoeanas immediately?
  5. Or has he?
  6. Who are Rosenstein and Wray trying to protect by refusing to turn over these documents? James Comey? Peter Strzok? Andrew McCabe? Hillary Clinton?
  7. Is the reason they don't want to turn over the documents that they realize the documents will show the entire basis for the Trump/Russia collusion investigation was a bunch of lies? Clinton-funded lies, no less?
Let's not fail to understand what the stakes are here: What we know is that the FBI filed an application with the FISA court for permission to wiretap Carter Page, and the FISA court granted the request based on information contained in that application. What we don't know is what was in the application, and specifically whether the Clinton-funded, unverified Steele dossier was part of the FISA application, or worse, whether it was the primary basis for it.

If it was, that means the Obama Justice Department obtained authorization to wiretap a Trump campaign official using unverified, probably false information. A reminder: The Watergate scandal was about men acting on behalf of the Nixon campaign breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters and planting listening devices, and the subsequent attempts by Nixon and those around him to cover it up. This led to the only presidential resignation in the history of our country. If the Obama Justice Department used the Steele dossier to get FISA authorization to wiretap Carter Page, this is not only every bit as bad as Watergate, it's worse. Because they not only did the exact same thing - listening in on the opposing party's campaign - but they abused the apparatus of law enforcement in order to do it. That's why it's so important that we find out what was in that FISA application, and why it's so suspicious that Rosenstein and Wray are doing everything they can not to turn over these documents. It's too late to impeach Barack Obama, but it will never be too late to learn the truth about whether his administration committed these acts. And it's time for the Department of Justice to stop stonewalling and let the rest of us know the truth.


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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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