President Donald Trump last month criticized the DOJ for “slow walking” requests from Republican lawmakers to disclose additional information on the Hillary Clinton probe. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump suggests he may intervene in DOJ release of Mueller probe documents The presidential criticism comes after the Justice Department refused to give Congress a memo on scope of special counsel investigation.

President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that he may “use the powers granted” to him to push for the release of internal Justice Department records relating to the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“A Rigged System - They don’t want to turn over Documents to Congress,” the president tweeted. “What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal ‘justice?’”


He added: “At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!”

Trump did not say precisely which records he believed were being slow-walked by the Justice Department, but Republicans have been pressing officials there to turn over memos on a variety of topics, including an August 2017 directive in which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid out the scope of Mueller’s investigation.

On Monday, Justice rejected lawmakers’ request for that memo, saying that disclosing it would jeopardize the ongoing probe.

“The Department recognizes the keen interest that Congress has in the Special Counsel’s investigation, but respectfully, we must adhere to the longstanding position of the Department that Congressional inquiries pertaining to ongoing criminal investigations threaten the integrity of those investigations,” Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd wrote in a letter to GOP Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio.

“Although we are working to accommodate the requests of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a number of oversight matters, we cannot provide the requested information pertaining to the Special Counsel’s ongoing investigation consistent with longstanding principles of investigatory independence,” Boyd added. “We hope you can respect our position.”

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Justice Department lawyers filed a heavily redacted version of the Rosenstein memo in court early last month, but that version detailed only two areas Mueller was tapped to probe: possible collusion between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russia in connection with the 2016 election, and crimes Manafort may have committed in connection with money he received for lobbying and consulting work related to Ukraine.

Meadows, who is in regular contact with Trump, said the president’s threat to “get involved” in the dispute is a reflection of the disconnect between DOJ and Congress.

“I’m certainly very thankful that the president understands that transparency should be the top priority,” he said. “But it’s very frustrating that after multiple personal conversations with the deputy attorney general and literally hundreds of calls that I’ve made to the DOJ that this has to rise to the level of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Jordan expressed disappointment Wednesday with Rosenstein’s decision, first reported by CNN. He said the American people “need to know” if the scope of Mueller’s investigation has changed since he was appointed a year ago.

“The American people have a reason to believe that they’re not getting answers to important questions,” he told POLITICO.

Jordan said it appears that the topics covered by Mueller’s investigation appear to have evolved since it began and, although he understands the Justice Department’s argument, Americans deserve more insight into an investigation that touches the president.

“It’s our president. It’s their president,” he said. “That was our point.”

Conservative GOP lawmakers have been at odds with the Justice Department over a series of oversight requests for records relating to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email account as well as other topics, including potential political bias among investigators assigned to that probe and the Russia investigation.

Meadows said he wasn’t particularly surprised the Justice Department rejected their request for the Mueller document but he said the fact that it took 22 days from their initial request to receive a response was particularly frustrating — and fits with what he described as a pattern of stonewalling.

“The facts are that it is only with incredible pressure that the Department of Justice actually delivers anything to Congress,” he said. “And the facts are that we have a constitutional oversight responsibility that cannot be ignored.”

But some at the Justice Department appear to be losing patience with GOP lawmakers’ hardball tactics, including suggestions that Rosenstein be impeached for defying the requests.

During an appearance at the Newseum on Tuesday, Rosenstein did not mention his August memo specifically, but he suggested that some Congressional requests were crossing “red lines” and should not be granted.

“There have been repeated articulations over the years about what the principles — the certain red lines — are, where it is not appropriate to conduct Congressional oversight,” the deputy attorney general said. “What has been established over time is: We have a responsibility to work with the Congress, but they have a responsibility to understand that their duty is not to interfere with ongoing investigations of the Department of Justice, not to do anything that might compromise national security or endanger informants.”

Rosenstein pointedly noted that nothing in the Constitution explicitly grants Congress the right to conduct oversight, although the practice has been a customary one for most of U.S. history. He said most disagreements on such issues are worked out, but he stressed that there are limits to his flexibility in dealing with Congress.

“I have a responsibility, as does the attorney general, to defend the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice,” he said during an event commemorating Law Day. “If we were to open our doors to allow Congress to come and rummage through the files, that would be a serious infringement on the separation of powers. And it might resolve a dispute, but it would have negative implications in the long run. We have a responsibility to defend the institution.”

During the same appearance, Rosenstein seemed rankled by reports that conservative GOP lawmakers are drafting articles of impeachment based in part on his lack of cooperativeness with congressional oversight requests.

“There have been people that have been making threats, publicly and privately, against me for quite some time, and I think they should understand by now: The Department of Justice is not going to be extorted,” Rosenstein said Tuesday during at the Newseum. “Any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job. We have a responsibility and we take an oath. That’s the whole point.”



CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story indicated that Trump's tweet appeared to refer to records about the Clinton email investigation. The story has been updated to reflect that new information suggests Trump was focused on the Mueller-related memo.