House Speaker Paul Ryan is pledging his support of an inspector general report into allegations that the Department of Justice and/or the Obama administration may have spied on the Trump campaign for political reasons.
Ryan addressed the matter during a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday.
"I think No. 1, having the IG report is very important and giving the IG the latitude to take the investigation where it needs to go. Having the U.S. attorney from Utah attached to the IG to give them the kind of tools they need to go after any abuses is important," Ryan said.
"What matters to us in the Article 1 branch of government conducting oversight of the executive branch is that we do get these document requests honored. FISA abuse is a serious issue. We the people, the Congress, have given the executive branch a lot of power in this very important law."
Ryan, who will retire from Congress at the end of his current term next January, said it's essential that the legislative branch continue to have the power to check the executive branch to ensure that it stays above board.
"It's really important that we conduct the proper oversight of the executive branch to make sure that that power is not or has not or will not be abused," Ryan said. "That's ultimately the big picture of what's going on here. And so I think it's important that we just let the truth come out on all these things."
President Donald Trump requested that the Department of Justice IG investigate claims that the FBI was used as a political weapon, which the DOJ agreed to do. The topic stems from the beginnings of the DOJ's Russia investigation in 2016, during which the FBI obtained top secret FISA warrants to spy on members of the Trump campaign.
Reports in recent days, including the fact that the FBI had at least one mole in the Trump campaign, have some in the Republican Party thinking that the entire investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was manufactured for political purposes.
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