Lawmakers learned two important facts while questioning Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Friday, but he thinks eventually, the FBI's reputation will be restored.
"We're going to restore the reputation of the FBI because director Wray and Rosenstein both have been very committed to doing this," the Virginia Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"There has been a cleaning house there. Six top people at the FBI are now gone, from Director [James] Comey and the deputy director [Andrew McCabe], and [agent Peter] Strzok I think is on his way out the door. That's a positive step."
Wray has also indicated he agrees with most, if not all the recommendations made by the Department of Justice's inspector general.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Rosenstein confirmed that there was "extreme bias" reflected not only by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, but by others who were identified, said Goodlatte.
"First of all [we had] a confirmation by the deputy attorney general of the United States that he agrees with the inspector general that there were many, many missteps made by the FBI, in the investigation into various actions by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton," he said.
"That's confirmation that this investigation that we've been conducting needs to move forward, because it now moves into what happened when Peter Strzok moved from the Clinton investigation into the so-called Trump/Russia collusion investigation," said Goodlatte.
In addition, lawmakers were able to address concerns about the production of documents and Strzok's comments from the day before.
"That interview was plagued by the FBI's counsel instructing him repeatedly not to answer questions that are very important to our investigation," said Goodlatte, noting he got to stress upon Rosenstein and Wray how important that was and to point out a new development, that is in the production of documents, which has been improving greatly.
Someone at the Department of Justice, he continued, made the decision not to include communications within the DOJ, only within the FBI or between the FBI and the DOJ.
"But if two people looking into the Clinton matter or other matters related to our investigation were communicating with each other in the Department of Justice, those weren't produced," said Goodlatte.
"We got a commitment from the U.S. Attorney John lausch, to get on that right away."
Goodlatte said he does not know what will happen when Strzok appears before the Judiciary Committee, considering that he was interrupted often and refused to answer questions before lawmakers this week.
"We don't know what he will do when he testifies," said Goodlatte. "Then he was allowed to answer questions, he answered the questions.
"Some of his answers particularly regarding the explanation of a number of his outrageous text messages were completely unbelievable. But nonetheless, he will be back before the committee for a public hearing. That will take place soon."
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.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.