House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., raised the alarm Monday after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein warned of the dangers of the government being too transparent.
“This double standard won’t cut it,” Schiff blared on Twitter, reacting to a reporter’s tweet highlighting excerpts from Rosenstein’s remarks at an event in Washington, D.C.
This double standard won’t cut it.
For two years, I sounded the alarm about DOJ’s deviation from just that principle as it turned over hundreds of thousands of pages in closed or ongoing investigations. I warned that DOJ would need to live by this precedent.
And it will. https://t.co/tN20sxgE67
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 25, 2019
“There is a knee-jerk reaction to be transparent about what we do in government, but there are a lot of reasons not to be transparent about what we do,” Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein, who over the years has been the subject of GOP frustration for what they said were insufficient or slow-going responses to their document requests, argued some of the information the government collects could be inaccurate or misleading if not handled properly, particularly in the case of uncharged individuals.
“It can be really misleading if you’re overly transparent about the information the government collects,” Rosenstein said. “Some of the things that we do just aren’t appropriate to expose at a congressional hearing. It just wouldn’t be in the interests of America to do it.”
The guidance Rosenstein said he has always given his prosecutors is: “If we aren’t prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens.”
Rosenstein, who is set to leave the Justice Department next month, has been overseeing the day-to-day operations of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation since the spring of 2017.
Mueller’s report is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks if not days.
Democrats now in control of committees in the House have opened up a renewed investigatory front focused on Trump, Russia, and his finances. Schiff’s committee is one of them, and in his tweet he issued a stern warning to DOJ.
“For two years, I sounded the alarm about DOJ’s deviation from just that principle as it turned over hundreds of thousands of pages in closed or ongoing investigations. I warned that DOJ would need to live by this precedent. And it will,” he said.
Schiff said on Sunday his panel plans to bring in Mueller to testify on the Russia investigation if the Justice Department does not release his entire report to the public.
“We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We take it to court if necessary,” the California Democrat said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when asked about transparency of any underlying evidence if someone has not been prosecuted.
In regards to whether new Attorney General William Barr will release the report to the public, Rosenstein did not say. He did predict Barr “is going to make the right decision. You can trust him to do this.”
