Democrats, including Mr. Schiff, have conceded in recent weeks that their hope of finding an extensive Russia-Trump conspiracy to jointly attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has fallen short at this point.
What could outlive the initial Russia probe are missions undertaken by Mr. Nunes. He has put in place what amounts to a separate investigation of the FBI and the Justice Department hierarchy.
There are three main components:
• Fusion GPS. The Democrat-friendly opposition research firm and Mr. Nunes have squared off in U.S. District Court over access to Fusion’s financial transactions. Fusion funded the infamous Trump-Russia dossier with money from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
• The FBI and the dossier. Republicans want to know how the document’s unconfirmed felony accusations fueled the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation since July 2016.
• Investigative bias. The committee is demanding appearances from Justice officials who seemed out to get Mr. Trump and/or had ties to the dossier’s distribution.
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“As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters,” Mr. Nunes wrote.
“Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI’s intransigence with respect to the August 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Mr. Nunes wrote. “At this point, it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.”