FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Tuesday he is doubling staff in response to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee.
Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed the Department of Justice earlier this month for documents regarding charging decisions in the investigation surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server, potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommendation to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
FBI Director Christopher Wray released the following statement on the Records Requests:
As the Director of the FBI, I am committed to ensuring that the Bureau is being transparent and responsive to legitimate congressional requests.
Up until today, we have dedicated 27 FBI staff to review the records that are potentially responsive to Chairman Goodlatte’s requests. The actual number of documents responsive to this request is likely in the thousands. Regardless, I agree that the current pace of production is too slow.
Accordingly, I am doubling the number of assigned FBI staff, for a total of 54, to cover two shifts per day from 8 a.m. to midnight to expedite completion of this project.
Last year, the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced a joint investigation into decisions made and not made by the Department of Justice in 2016. As part of the joint investigation, Chairmen Goodlatte and Gowdy have repeatedly requested that the Justice Department hand over the 1.2 million documents relating to the investigation into former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send and receive classified information. To date, the Committees have received only a few thousand of the 1.2 million documents provided to the Inspector General. And since the Committees launched their investigation, it has come to light that the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended the dismissal of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, based in part on events related to the Clinton investigation.
Additionally, in February 2018, Chairman Goodlatte requested that the Justice Department and FBI provide documents related to potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a national security tool that allows the intelligence community to surveil foreign targets outside of the United States. To date, no documents have been provided to the House Judiciary Committee in response to this request
