FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Tuesday that he is doubling the number of staff devoted to responding to record requests from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on the Hillary Clinton email probe and surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“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,” Wray said in a statement. “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.”
Goodlatte issued a subpoena to the Justice Department last week for the documents he previously requested, as well as new information, complaining that the department had so far been too slow in responding to his request for documents.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd also responded to Goodlatte’s subpoena in a Tuesday letter. Boyd noted that the Justice Department has been working to find the documents relevant to the request and sending them to the committee once they have gone through the review process. But he also noted that some of Goodlatte’s requests in the subpoena were new, specifically Goodlatte’s demand for documents related to Andrew McCabe’s firing.
“In the subpoena, certain categories of documents are requested for the first time, a significant deviation from the traditional method of accommodating congressional requests for information without compulsory process,” Boyd wrote.
Goodlatte’s subpoena and the Justice Department’s response on Tuesday come as Republicans in Congress ramp up their criticism of the DOJ and FBI. Goodlatte’s subpoena was just the latest attempt by Republicans on Capitol Hill to undermine investigations into President Donald Trump and his campaign by attempting to characterize the investigators as partisan hacks.
