Meadows Makes an Announcement on #Spygate That’ll Have Americans CHEERING
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Mark Meadows announced today on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he is “hopeful” the Justice Department will release documents on the FBI’s informant in the 2016 Trump campaign “in the coming days.”
Rep. Mark Meadows, a key Republican ally of President Trump, said he is “hopeful” that the Justice Department will soon share documents pertaining to the FBI informant who made contact with at least three members of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
During an interview Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Meadows affirmed reporting that said no documents were shown during two briefings DOJ and intelligence officials gave to a bipartisan group of lawmakers Thursday about the confidential source.
But, the North Carolina Republican added, “We’re hopeful” that the documents will be produced “in the coming days as long as we can protect the sources and methods that important for all Americans.”
Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was not present at the briefings attended by the “Gang of Eight” and House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. But he has been a leading advocate to have the documents given to Congress for the sake of oversight and reportedly has Trump’s ear.
Trump has embarked in a week-long Twitter tirade, expressing his dismay with what he has dubbed “spygate.” Trump and his alliesallege that a “spy” — which by definition is different than a confidential source — was improperly sent to scope out his campaign for political purposes.
The briefings came after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., demanded documents about the source. Afterwards, Republicans who were briefed have been largely mum on what they learned, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. did concede that there was “nothing particularly surprising.”
Republicans close to Nunes indicated to the New York Times before the briefings that he would not be satisfied until he saw the documents.
Democrats, led by House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said after the meetings that they were shown “no evidence” of a spy in the Trump campaign.
Several news outlets have identified the FBI’s source as Stefan Halper, a former University of Cambridge professor. Previously, law enforcement officials warned it would not reveal who the source because doing so could put national security and lives at risk.
Referring to unclassified sources, including text messages, Meadows talked about “what we do know” in making his case for why Republicans aim to learn more about the source.
“What we do know is, that there was indeed a confidential human source as the FBI would call it that was actually giving intel not only to the FBI … but you have to ask the question when did it start?” Meadows said. “The question begs, at whose direction, what were they collecting and who were they reporting to?”
Counter to Meadows’ concern, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the FBI was rightfully looking into “suspicious” activity by “certain individuals.”
“As far as what I have seen to date, it appears that there was an investigation not of the campaign but of certain individuals who have a history that we should be suspicious of that predate the presidential campaign of 2015, 2016,” he said.