House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., suggested the FBI's and Justice Department's "stonewalling" of congressional investigators seeking documents relevant to their reviews of the Hillary Clinton email and Russian-interference investigations could be due to a desire to see Democrats take control of the House in November.
"They would love to see Republicans lose. I hate to say that, but I have to believe that the Department of Justice and FBI, the people at leadership, they are banking on a loss by the Republicans in the fall," Nunes said in an interview Wednesday night with the Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity.
If Democrats take over the House in November, the congressman charged, "they're going to drop all of this investigation -- they're not going to do anything on this investigation."
Nunes told Hannity he found the timing of the Justice Department's indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agents last Friday "very hard to believe."
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A federal grand jury returned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller charges for allegedly hacking emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic Party during the 2016 election.
The announcement came just two days before Trump's one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, and after a public House hearing questioned FBI agent Peter Strzok for the first time and held a private meeting with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
"You might give them the benefit of the doubt, but why does this always happen?" Nunes asked. "Every time something happens on one side where we find out a new revelation about what appears to be real problems in the FBI and DOJ with this investigation, all of a sudden, they drop an indictment."
Nunes said the "snail-pace cooperation" is "clearly designed to wait until next week when Congress adjourns."
"I have news for them. They are still going to have to come in and give depositions," Nunes declared. "They may think they are not going to, but they are going to be coming in and getting depositions throughout the summer."