WASHINGTON — Ex-FBI Director James Comey and dozens of other Obama-era officials could soon be hauled before Congress after the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday gave Chairman Lindsey Graham unilateral subpoena powers as part of his review into the Mueller probe.
The committee on Thursday voted along party lines to give Graham (R-SC) the authority to subpoena more than 50 mostly Obama administration officials as part of the GOP-led review, including Comey, ex-CIA Director John Brennan and former national security adviser Susan Rice, among others.
Democrats on the committee accused Republicans of doing President Trump’s bidding ahead of the November election and grew frustrated when their requests to subpoena their own witnesses, including Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, were continually knocked down.
“The fact that you are turning down every single relevant witness tells us and tells the world this is an irrelevant investigation,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
“This is stacked, my friends,” he added.
Democrats also argued that the review was unnecessary because it would be going over the same ground as a probe by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz that found the origins of the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election were littered with errors.
Republicans refused to back down and said questions still remained over whether the nation’s top law enforcement agencies deliberately conspired to spy on the Trump campaign.
“It’ll be a collaborative process, but you’re trying to stop me from doing something I think the country needs to do and I’m not going to be stopped,” Graham said.
Among the 53 individuals Graham would like to subpoena are former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, John Podesta, and FBI “lovebirds” Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.
Current Attorney General William Barr and FBI chief Christopher Wray are also listed. In a rare display of bipartisanship, the sides agreed they want to hear from a representative for former special counsel Robert Mueller.
“If there’s nothing there, then I’m going to have egg on my face, but I’m going to get to why everybody ran through stop signs all the time,” Graham said.
“There seems to be no desire to look at how Mueller got so off script,” he continued. “We’re going to look at it. Mr. Horowitz did a good job but he didn’t answer the questions I’m talking about.”
Trump last month urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to also force former President Barack Obama to testify on the origins of the investigation — an idea Graham was quick to dismiss.