A top House ally of President Donald Trump said Wednesday he expects the Justice Department will refuse to share the information that House Republicans have sought regarding an FBI informant that made contact with the Trump campaign.
"They’re not going to see any documents tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter," Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told reporters, when asked about his view of a classified briefing – set for Thursday – in which senior intelligence community officials are slated to huddle with two House Republicans to discuss the informant.
"Going to a briefing without seeing the documents," he added, "is worthless."
The informant was deployed as part of the government’s investigation into Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.
Pressed on how he knows DOJ won’t share the information Republicans have asked for, Meadows said he couldn’t comment, and then added it was based on "rhetoric" and recent history.
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy were invited to meet with top Justice Department officials Thursday after Trump intervened to force the issue. Nunes subpoenaed the Justice Department for information about the informant last month but was denied, with top officials warning that sharing information with Congress would endanger national security and risk lives.
But as speculation among Trump allies escalated about the informant – Trump speculated that the person was a politically-motivated "spy" – Trump himself got involved, ordering the Justice Department to investigate and pushing DOJ to share documents with Congress.
The effort has led to howls from Democrats, who say they should be included -�per tradition – in any briefing provided to Republicans.
Wednesday morning, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer jointly asked for the briefing to include members of the Gang of Eight, which include the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the Republican and Democratic leaders of each branch’s intelligence committee.
The original story can be found here.
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