House Oversight Committee Republicans canceled a scheduled contempt of Congress vote against Christopher Wray late Wednesday. Chairman James Comer canceled the hearing ahead of a vote on the matter Thursday to sanction Wray for failing to comply completely with a subpoena to hand over the document.
“Allowing all Oversight Committee members to review this record is an important step toward conducting oversight of the FBI and holding it accountable to the American people,” Comer said in a statement announcing the cancellation. Comer argued Wednesday that the FBI had not complied with the subpoena and pledged a vote to hold the FBI director in contempt.
To date, the FBI has refused to comply with our lawfully issued subpoena and even refused to admit the record’s existence up until a week ago,” Comer said in a statement accompanying the resolution. “The case is not closed as the White House, Democrats, as the FBI would have the American people believe.”
The FBI typically does not share information about claims that it is investigating, or comment on unfounded or discredited accusations in order to protect its sources or spread baseless and damaging misinformation. Comer provided no indication of the source of the claims or any evidence that any potential accusations contained in such a document are true.
While Comer was unsatisfied after the meeting, Raskin said officials told them at the briefing that the document dated back to the Trump administration’s Justice Department, which had vetted the claims and decided there was no grounds to escalate the report from an “assessment” to a “preliminary investigation.” He told reporters the document featured what he described as “second-hand hearsay.”
On Wednesday, as Comer released his statement about the resolution, Raskin reiterated in a statement that the lawmakers “were repeatedly told by the FBI” that the Trump Justice Department “came to the conclusion it had found no sufficient evidence to justify further inquiry.”
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Article URL : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-cancels-contempt-of-congress-vote-against-fbi-director/ar-AA1cg8wA