The timing of the Justice Department’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agents last week was “very hard to believe,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said on “Hannity” Wednesday.

Nunes: DOJ, FBI ‘banking’ on Republicans losing in midterms to take heat off

By Gregg Re | Fox News July 19, 2018:

The timing of the Justice Department’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agents last week was “very hard to believe,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said on “Hannity” Wednesday.

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted the agents for allegedly hacking emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic Party during the 2016 election — just days before Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

The indictment also dropped shortly after House Republicans publicly questioned FBI agent Peter Strzok for the first time, and held a private meeting with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

The hearing yielded several new revelations, including that Strzok felt “significant regret” for his numerous anti-Trump text messages and that Strzok maintained a top secret security clearance, despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier saying he believed Strzok’s security credentials had been revoked.

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“You might give them the benefit of the doubt, but why does this always happen?” Nunes, R-Calif., asked. “Every time something happens on one side where we find out a new revelation about what appears to be real problems in the FBI and DOJ with this investigation, all of a sudden, they drop an indictment.”

But FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday night at a forum in Aspen, Colorado: “I’m going to let the indictment speak for itself.” He also defended Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, saying, “I think it is a professional investigation conducted by a man I’ve known to be a straight shooter.”

Panel debate the effects of Russian interference on ‘Fox News @ Night.’

Asked by Sean Hannity whether the FBI and DOJ were “stonewalling” congressional investigators in the hopes that Democrats would take control of the House in November, Nunes suggested that might be a possibility.

“It’s the oldest trick in the book,” Nunes said. “We are getting a very slow snail-pace cooperation that is clearly designed to wait until next week when Congress adjourns.

“I have news for them. They are still going to have to come in and give depositions,” Nunes added. “They may think they are not going to, but they are going to be coming in and getting depositions throughout the summer.”

He added: “They would love to see Republicans lose. I hate to say that, but I have to believe that the Department of Justice and FBI, the people at leadership, they are banking on a loss by the Republicans in the fall.”

If Democrats take over the House in November, “they’re going to drop all of this investigation — they’re not going to do anything on this investigation,” Nunes charged.