The Department of Justice and FBI probably will not meet a 5 p.m. Monday deadline for turning over documents connected with the alleged use of informants in President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who has demanded the information, said Monday.
"Knowing the past, they are probably not going to meet the deadline," the California Republican told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"However, the American people are beginning to see what it is what we have been after for a very long time and that is, is it common or does it ever happen that the counterintelligence agencies are they used to target political campaigns? We need to know the answer."
Democrats, though, are "hiding because they are so married to this Russia fiasco that's been going on for so long," said Nunes. "I would think most of the American people, including most people in politics would be very worried if FBI and others are running informants into our campaigns."
The matter is a simple question that deserves a simple answer, he added, but Republicans on his committee have been asking the same question for many months.
"We had a meeting Friday morning [and] we thought that everything was going to come together," said Nunes, "but then, as you all know, we received a letter, almost at midnight Friday night which was a textbook, swampy example of what they do here in Washington. They tell you are going to get it by the end of the week and then wait until nearly the stroke of midnight."
There were many documents submitted last week, Nunes acknowledged, but they should have been provided months ago.
"I would say we cleaned up most of what was on the table except for the most important piece. which is -- two pieces really, but you can't take information that our investigators and our committee members found and then was retroactive," said Nunes.
There is a great deal, though, that is not known, but what it gets down to is "did you use the counterintelligence capability in this country to run informants, or spies, or whatever you want to call them into the Trump campaign before that date?" said Nunes.
"The Department of Justice and FBI are on a very slippery slope because we need to keep capabilities to track down terrorists, but I will tell you, I bet you wouldn't find one vote on the Republican side today to keep these capabilities in place."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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