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By
Kimberley A. Strassel
May 10, 2018 6:50 p.m. ET
1663 COMMENTS
e
e e The Department of Justice lost its latest battle with Congress Thursday when it agreed to brief House
Intelligence Committee members about a top-secret intelligence source that was part of the FBI’s
investigation of the Trump campaign. Even without official confirmation of that source’s name, the news so
far holds some stunning implications.
Among them is that the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation outright hid critical
information from a congressional investigation. In a Thursday press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan bluntly
noted that Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes’s request for details on this secret source was “wholly
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appropriate,” “completely within the scope” of the committee’s long-running FBI investigation, and
“something that probably should have been answered a while ago.” Translation: The department knew full
well it should have turned this material over to congressional investigators last year, but instead deliberately
concealed it.
House investigators nonetheless sniffed out a name, and Mr. Nunes in recent weeks issued a letter and a
subpoena demanding more details. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s response was to double
down—accusing the House of “extortion” and delivering a speech in which he claimed that “declining to
open the FBI’s files to review” is a constitutional “duty.” Justice asked the White House to back its
stonewall. And it even began spinning that daddy of all superspook arguments—that revealing any detail
about this particular asset could result in “loss of human lives.”
This is desperation, and it strongly suggests that whatever is in these files is going to prove very
uncomfortable to the FBI.
The bureau already has some explaining to do. Thanks to the Washington Post’s unnamed law-enforcement
leakers, we know Mr. Nunes’s request deals with a “top secret intelligence source” of the FBI and CIA, who
is a U.S. citizen and who was involved in the Russia collusion probe. When government agencies refer to
sources, they mean people who appear to be average citizens but use their profession or contacts to spy for
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020819