Republican congressmen Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan on Tuesday demanded that the Justice Department allow the House Judiciary Committee access to unredacted versions of documents related to the FBI's investigation into former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"How about this? Give it to us in unredacted form," Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
The Justice Department on Monday announced that it appointed U.S. Attorney John Lausch to direct the process of redacting, combing through and releasing thousands of the documents being sought by lawmakers.
The action comes amid complaints from Republicans, including President Donald Trump, that the DOJ is slow-tracking the documents' release.
"Just a few weeks ago we caught them trying to redact, they did redact the conversation between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page talking about Strzok's relationship with one of the FISA court judges who also happened to be the judge who oversaw the Mike Flynn case," said Jordan.
In December, U.S. District Judge Rudy Contreras removed himself from the case involving Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser.
In March, The Washington Post reported there were texts between Strzok and Page discussing Strzok's relationship with Contreras.
"They hid that from us," said Jordan. "We had to go over there to the Justice Department to find out what was going on in that redaction. How about just giving it to us in an unredacted form?"
The DOJ said that much of the materials being reviewed had nothing to do with the Clinton probe, but Meadows, R-NC, said he's had enough of the spin coming from DOJ.
"I'm tired of the excuses," said Meadows. " I can tell you I have looked at some of this stuff. And if you put all of their workforce on the level playing field where they are actually redacting it every day, what they have produced to Congress is less than two pages a day."
Meadows said he sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, outlining 10 redactions of material facts, and he thinks "enough is enough."
"Let's get the documents," he said. "Let's do it this week. And if this attorney general and deputy attorney general can't do it, Let's find two who will."
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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