WASHINGTON _ The Justice Department has agreed to begin turning over some counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials uncovered in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to House lawmakers, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said.
Schiff said in a statement Wednesday that the department has agreed to start turning over 12 categories of information that his panel had subpoenaed and the process should be completed by next week. He canceled a meeting at which the committee was to consider unspecified action against Justice for defying the subpoena.
"The Committee's subpoena will remain in effect, and will be enforced should the Department fail to comply with the full document request," Schiff said in the statement. "The Department has repeatedly acknowledged the Committee's legitimate oversight interest in these materials. I look forward to, and expect, continued compliance by the Department so we can do our vital oversight work."
Schiff last week announced the Justice Department has ignored a subpoena for "counterintelligence and foreign intelligence" material produced in Mueller's Russia investigation. "The long and short of it was the deadline came and went without the production of any documents," he said.
Schiff had issued a subpoena for the material the week before, giving the department a deadline it didn't meet. Schiff then told reporters that unless the department does respond, the committee would move forward "reluctantly" with consideration of some type of enforcement action, which he said would be done in consultation with the House's general counsel.
The California Democrat would not specify what action that litigation strategy might be, saying it would decided by the committee in a closed-door meeting. But he said it would be designed to force the department to meet its "legal commitment."
Schiff had issued that subpoena after the department previously did not respond to earlier bipartisan requests from him and top panel Republican Devin Nunes, also of California, to voluntarily turn over the documents. Schiff said he then had "no choice" but for him to issue a subpoena to force compliance. Those efforts by both Schiff and Nunes to obtain the materials were a rare showing of bipartisanship by them, though Nunes did not join-in on the subpoena.
