President Trump lashed out at the Justice Department on Wednesday, complaining that he may have to “get involved” amid an ongoing dispute between conservative lawmakers and the department over a memo outlining the topics being investigated by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The president’s tweet suggests that friction may be rising again between Trump and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who just a day earlier declared at a public event that “the Justice Department is not going to be extorted” by public and private threats.
[Rosenstein responds to impeachment threat]
Less than 24 hours after Rosenstein’s comments, Trump fired off a tweet declaring: “A Rigged System — They don’t want to turn over Documents to Congress. What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal “justice?” At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!”
Before that broadside, Trump sent a tweet promoting Fox News Channel legal analyst Gregg Jarrett’s new book, which is highly critical of how the FBI investigated Hillary Clinton and Trump. “A sad chapter for law enforcement. A rigged system!” the president tweeted.
Precisely what the president is complaining about is unclear, but on Monday, Justice Department officials notified Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that they would not be receiving an unredacted copy of a memo outlining the scope of Mueller’s inquiry, according to officials familiar with the matter. A heavily redacted version of that memo has emerged in the pretrial hearings of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Meadows and Jordan, two of the president’s fiercest defenders, want to see the rest of it.
The full memo outlines which Trump associates are under investigation, and for what, according to people familiar with the document.
The Justice Department has turned over other documents relating to the FBI’s work, including memos that former director James B. Comey wrote about his private meetings with Trump, and an internal FBI document from 2016 that led to a key stage of the investigation of whether any Trump associates coordinated with the Kremlin in trying to influence the presidential election.
Justice Department officials said dozens of lawmakers and staff members from both parties have viewed thousands of classified pages, a process that now includes members of both parties being given temporary office space at the Justice Department to review hundreds of thousands of documents.
Many of the issues under review are already the subject of a long-running inspector general investigation. That inquiry is expected to culminate in a long public report in a matter of weeks.
It’s unclear from Trump’s tweet what presidential powers he is threatening to use if the Justice Department doesn’t cooperate more fully. For months, he has complained privately and publicly about Rosenstein, leaving many inside the department worrying that the deputy attorney general, who oversees the Mueller investigation, could eventually be fired.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned Trump against doing so, tweeting: “Mr. President, the powers of the Presidency do not give you the right to interfere with or shut down the Russia investigation. Firing the Deputy AG or Director Mueller would create a constitutional crisis. Do not go down this road.”
At an appearance Tuesday at the Newseum, Rosenstein said the department would resist efforts to force officials to reveal sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
“I think they should understand by now that the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted,” Rosenstein said. “We’re going to do what’s required by the rule of law, and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job.”
Meadows and Jordan, as two members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, have been in a months-long fight with the department over what they say is a failure to turn over documents on sensitive topics, including the court-approved surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The lawmakers ratcheted up the pressure recently by finalizing a draft of impeachment articles for Rosenstein, which criticize him for approving the Page surveillance, and then not producing requested documents.
After Rosenstein’s remarks, Meadows fired back.
“If he believes being asked to do his job is extortion, then Rod Rosenstein should step aside and allow us to find a new Deputy Attorney General — preferably one who is interested in transparency,” he said.
The Freedom Caucus is an influential bloc within Congress, but to impeach Rosenstein its members would need the support of House or Judiciary Committee leaders, and a majority of members. Actually removing Rosenstein from office would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate — which many staff members consider nearly impossible in the current political climate.