House conservatives Wednesday night took the first step toward removing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from office, marking a dramatic escalation in a dispute over lawmakers’ requests for information about the government’s most politically charged probes.
Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, along with nine co-sponsors, filed articles of impeachment against Rosenstein in the House. The move comes after a tense, monthslong tug of war over the Justice Department’s production of documents and information related to investigations involving Hillary Clinton and President Trump.
Meadows and other congressional Republicans who are close allies of Trump say the push for more information is part of routine oversight of federal law enforcement. Democrats say it is an effort to undermine the current special counsel investigation that Rosenstein oversees.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Meadows’s move. But earlier Wednesday, department officials said they had accommodated nearly all lawmakers’ requests for documents and other information related to the investigations. The officials said the requests from several Republicans were unusual and possibly unprecedented, given that information from sensitive investigations generally is closely held, to avoid compromising the probe or endangering people involved.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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