The Justice Department turned over a thousand documents to House Republicans on Friday, many of which concern a private citizen who has not held public office since 2013 and who has expressed no interest in seeking such an office in the future.

The documents, according to the Associated Press, mostly concern “the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation and the handling of its probe into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails.”

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, is one of the leading proponents of a conspiracy theory claiming that the Justice Department’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia is tainted because DOJ initially relied on the so-called “pee tape” dossier to justify the investigation. House Republicans are believed to have sought many of the new documents in an effort to bolster this conspiracy theory.

Nunes even threatened to impeach top Justice Department officials if certain documents were not turned over.

Meanwhile, some of the documents DOJ recently turned over relate to the FBI’s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account to conduct official business.


This investigation largely concluded with then-FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges against Clinton. And a recently report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General concluded that Comey treated Clinton unfairly when he publicly disparaged Clinton on two occasions, in violation of longstanding DOJ policy.

Nevertheless, House Republicans appear to believe that continuing to probe her emails is a useful way to spend their time.