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Justice Department and intelligence officials held classified briefings for lawmakers Thursday about the early stages of the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the meetings had defused the dispute between the department and some Republican House members.
Congressional Republicans, backed by President Donald Trump, had sought the meetings after demanding access to sensitive information, including documents related to the FBI’s use of an American academic who talked in 2016 to at least two Trump campaign aides at the investigators’ behest.
Department officials declined to comment following the meetings, and Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the main lawmakers behind the push for more information, emerged without saying whether they were satisfied.
The White House initially arranged briefings only for Republicans but ultimately held two briefings that included Democratic leaders. In an unexpected development, the sessions were attended not only by White House chief of staff John Kelly but also White House lawyer Emmet Flood, who hadn’t been on a list of attendees provided earlier by the Justice Department. Democrats complained that a lawyer for the White House should have had no role in a meeting involving congressional oversight of the Justice Department, especially since the topic was an investigation involving the president.
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