Senate Republicans are significantly ramping up their investigations into the FBI’s Russia probe with a vote Thursday to give two GOP committee chairmen broad subpoena power to haul in officials from the Obama administration.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines 8-6 to grant the subpoena authorization to Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican. And the Senate Judiciary Committee began its debate for a similarly wide-ranging authorization to Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, who said the final vote on the subpoena authorization would occur next week.
The pair of subpoena authorizations will boost the Republican-led probes scrutinizing the actions of the FBI, the Justice Department and Obama administration officials – including President Donald Trump’s presumptive general election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. Graham and Johnson are investigating issues surrounding the FBI’s Russia investigation, the prosecution of Trump’s associates and the appointment of former special counsel Robert Mueller.
The two investigations, as well as another probe Johnson has started related to Biden’s son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy firm, come against an election-year backdrop in which Trump has openly cheered on the probes, urging Senate Republicans to get “tough,” and Trump administration officials have declassified documents related to the prosecution of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The Justice Department has launched its own review of the FBI’s Russia investigation, and Attorney General William Barr disputed the inspector general’s conclusion the investigation was properly opened.
Both Graham and Johnson have said they expect to issue reports detailing their findings before the election. Graham said he’s going to focus on the FBI’s Russia investigation, and leaving questions about the Trump transition to Johnson.
Graham’s subpoena authorization included 53 officials, most of whom served in the Obama administration, while Johnson’s subpoena authorization included 35 individuals. There were 24 names on both lists.
“We’re not going to retry the Mueller investigation. The court has issued a stunning rebuke of the FBI. Isn’t it our job to find out what happened?” Graham said Thursday.
“Here we are three years later and the American public does not know what happened prior to the election, during the transition, and afterwards that has created, let’s face it, a constitutional crisis for the last three years,” Johnson said.
Democrats accuse Republicans of abusing their committee powers to try to dig up election dirt and help Trump’s reelection in an effort to rewrite the history of Russian election interference and the special counsel’s finding that Trump’s team welcomed the help, even if they did not conspire with Russia.
“This motion and I’m sorry to say this but I believe it, grants the chair unbridled authority to go after Obama-era official. I can’t support this kind of dragnet authority to conduct politically motivated investigations,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The sudden shift to seek authorization of 36 subpoenas without first voluntarily seeking compliance gives the appearance of a fishing expedition,” said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. “I’m also concerned by the timing of this investigation which did not become a priority until we entered into an election year.”
All Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee backed the subpoena, but one, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, expressed reservations about the probe.
“I continue to be concerned that this is politically motivated,” Romney said, echoing a similar criticism he expressed over the Ukraine investigation. “Given these concerns I’ve endeavored to narrow the scope of the committee’s investigation to focus on specific wrongdoing, and to prevent the subpoena of inspectors general and other work products, as we’ve agreed, and therefore I will not stand in the way of the chairman’s effort to pursue additional information.”
In the Judiciary Committee, tensions ran hot at times as the panel members argued over the legitimacy of investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation, with Democrats accusing Republicans of running a political errand for Trump and Republicans charging that Democrats were ignoring an abuse of power because the target was Trump.
Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, grew tired of the debate and asked Graham when a vote would occur because had other committee business to attend to.
“It’s bulls— the way people grandstand for cameras in here,” Sasse said. “Ninety percent of our committees are about people trolling for soundbites.”
Graham disagreed, saying he was offended by the suggestion and that the debate was real.
“I don’t think they’re trolling for soundbites, I think they’re genuinely upset with what I’m doing,” Graham said. “I don’t think I’m trolling for a soundbite – I’m trying to defend what I think we need to be doing as chairman. There happens to be a TV camera; I think we’d be having the same conversation if there wasn’t a television camera. So no, I find the whole concept offensive.”
Graham kicked off his hearings as part of his investigation Wednesday with former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller. At the hearing, Graham explained that he would be examining the origins of the FBI’s investigation and the decision to appoint Mueller in 2017.
Johnson’s subpoena authorization includes documents and testimony related to the FBI’s Russia investigation and the surveillance warrant obtained on a Trump adviser, the Trump transition, interactions with author of the opposition research dossier Christopher Steele and the “unmasking” requests in the Obama administration that were declassified by former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell last month.
Graham’s investigation is focused on the origins of the FBI investigation itself and the appointment of Mueller, as well as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant obtained on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Rosenstein, for instance, was Graham’s first witness called but is not on Johnson’s list of officials. Still, there’s likely to be plenty of overlap.
Graham acknowledged he’s faced criticism for the election-year probe but argued that the public could judge for itself his actions, noting he also introduced legislation in 2017 to protect the special counsel amid Trump’s attacks.
“The public can judge whether I’m on some cause for Trump or not,” Graham said. “I think I’ve got a pretty good record of saying if that makes sense, I’ll do it.”
This story has been updated with additional developments Thursday.
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.