The Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said Sunday there will “be hell to pay” if the Justice Department doesn’t comply with outstanding requests this week for information related to the Russian investigation.
Rep. Devin Nunes’s comments come after GOP leaders met with officials from the Justice Department on Friday night and discussed roughly 20 deadlines that had either been partially met or not yet fulfilled. He also said their staffs would meet Monday to continue working on the details.
The California Republican told Fox News they came to an agreement Friday that the Justice Department would begin to hand over the requested documents this week, and lawmakers should have some of the requests fulfilled by Wednesday morning.
“Multiple deadlines have been blown past,” Mr. Nunes said. “The Speaker of the House wanted to make sure we essentially reset everything and got back on track and to make sure this week all the outstanding requests are taken care of this week.”
Mr. Nunes suggested contempt of Congress is one option lawmakers can take if the Justice Department fails to act this week.
Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Trey Gowdy said the documents requested address alleged FISA abuses and include more inquiries about the text messages between FBI official Peter Strzok and his lover and colleague Lisa Page.
“The Speaker of the House was very clear — you are going to comply or else there will be floor action — and I think they got the message,” the South Carolina Republican told Fox News on Sunday.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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