The Senate Intelligence Committee’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. is putting a spotlight on a split within the GOP conference between it and another…
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. is putting a spotlight on a split within the GOP conference between it and another key panel investigating the 2016 election — the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Intelligence Committee has long been seen as the last bipartisan investigation into the 2016 election on Capitol Hill. Chairman Richard Burr (R-N. C.) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), have worked closely together and generally avoided partisan fights.
News of the Trump Jr. subpoena provoked GOP criticism of Barr, with Warner coming to his defense.
The Judiciary Committee has been seen as a more partisan panel, and its chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.), is now plotting an investigation into the handling of the Hillary Clinton’s email probe and GOP concerns that the Obama-era FBI “spied” on Trump’s presidential campaign. Trump and his allies have accused the issue of being “swept under the rug.”
Graham, who took over the Judiciary Committee in January, distanced himself from the Trump Jr. subpoena, the first known instance of a subpoena directed toward one of the president’s children.
“I’m not his lawyer, so it’s up to him, but if I were his lawyer I’d be reluctant to put him back in this circus,” Graham told reporters.
Graham avoided any criticism of Burr, but said of the investigation into Trump’s campaign: “for me, it’s over.”
The two panels engaged in a turf battle in the early days of the Trump administration, and have since traveled down different paths, with wildly different scopes of interest.
They initially locked horns over competing requests to hear from key figures like former FBI Director James Comey.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Judiciary chairman from 2015 through 2018, kvetched at the time that his requests were being “stonewalled,” after Comey declined to appear before his panel but testified publicly before Burr’s committee.
“We’ve each got a piece of this, but they’re all distinct,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is one two senators who serves on both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.
