News

Democrat rips Meadows' Rosenstein threat as 'obstruction of justice'

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 26, 2018

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and a fellow Freedom Caucus leader launched an effort in the House on Wednesday to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, charging that he has worked to "obstruct legitimate attempts of congressional oversight."

Declaring that "time is up and the consequences are here," Meadows, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and nine cosponsors introduced Articles of Impeachment that seek to remove Rosenstein for "intentionally withholding embarrassing documents and information, knowingly hiding material investigative information from Congress, various abuses of the FISA process, and failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas, among others."

“Multiple times we’ve caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas—and now we have evidence that Mr. Rosenstein signed off on a document using unverified political opposition research as a cornerstone of a FISA application to spy on an American citizen working for the Trump campaign," said Meadows, a close ally and strong supporter of Trump. "This level of conduct, paired with the failure to even feign an interest in transparency, is reprehensible. And whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, this kind of obstruction is wrong—period."

Meadows' Democratic opponent in the Nov. 6 general election, Phillip Price, condemned the impeachment resolution as an attempt to shut down the Justice Department's investigation of Russian meddling into the 2016 election through "obstruction of justice."

“As more and more of the dots are connected in the Russian involvement in our 2016 election, Mark Meadows has chosen to take the path of obstruction of justice by joining other far-right members of the GOP in an attempt to shut down the investigation by removing Rod Rosenstein from office,’’ Price said. “We must condemn this action and stand in defense of the ongoing investigation by Robert Mueller and allow the truth to be known.”

Meadows has repeatedly attacked Rosenstein and the Department of Justice for months, despite Mueller’s investigation that has resulted in 191 charges against 32 people and three companies to date.

Price, who runs a lumber recycling business in McDowell County, won the 11th Congressional District Democratic primary in May in his first political campaign.