[House Report 116-33]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


116th Congress   }                                      {       Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session     }                                      {       116-33

======================================================================

 
   RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY REQUESTING THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTING THE 
 ATTORNEY GENERAL TO TRANSMIT, RESPECTIVELY, CERTAIN DOCUMENTS TO THE 
  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES RELATING TO THE ACTIONS OF FORMER FEDERAL 
         BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ACTING DIRECTOR ANDREW MCCABE

                                _______
                                

   April 4, 2019.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

    Mr. Nadler, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                            ADDITIONAL VIEWS

                       [To accompany H. Res. 243]

    The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the 
resolution (H. Res. 243) of inquiry requesting the President 
and directing the Attorney General to transmit, respectively, 
certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to 
the actions of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Acting 
Director Andrew McCabe, having considered the same, report 
favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the 
resolution as amended be agreed to.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose and Summary..............................................     2
Background and Need for the Legislation..........................     3
Hearings.........................................................     6
Committee Consideration..........................................     6
Committee Votes..................................................     6
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     8
New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures and Congressional 
  Budget Office Cost Estimate....................................     8
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................     8
Performance Goals and Objectives.................................     8
Advisory on Earmarks.............................................     8
Section-by-Section Analysis......................................     8
Additional Views.................................................     9

    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the 
following:

That the Attorney General of the United States is directed to transmit, 
to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date 
of the adoption of this resolution, copies of any document, record, 
audio recording, memorandum, correspondence, or other communication in 
his possession, or any portion thereof, that refers or relates to the 
following:
          (1) Any meetings or discussions between or among Deputy 
        Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and former Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation (FBI) Acting Director Andrew McCabe, regarding 
        conversations with the President, including but not limited 
        to--
                  (A) any reference concerning wearing a recording 
                device or preparing in any way to record the President; 
                and
                  (B) any reference concerning the invocation of the 
                25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to remove the 
                President from office.
          (2) Any meetings or discussions between or among FBI Acting 
        Director Andrew McCabe and others at the FBI referring or 
        relating to commencing or continuing an obstruction of justice 
        or counterintelligence investigation of the President.

                          Purpose and Summary

    H. Res. 243, as ordered reported, is a non-binding 
resolution of inquiry directing Attorney General William Barr 
to transmit to the House of Representatives certain documents 
and materials pertaining to: (1) meetings or discussions 
between Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and former 
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Acting Director Andrew 
McCabe regarding certain conversations with President Donald 
Trump; and (2) any meetings or discussions between or among FBI 
Acting Director McCabe and others at the FBI regarding certain 
matters.\1\ Specifically, it directs Attorney General Barr to 
transmit, not later than 14 days after the Resolution is 
adopted by the House, any such documents and materials that 
refer or relate to:
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    \1\Although H. Res. 243's long title states the Resolution requests 
the President to transmit certain documents to the House relating to 
the actions of former FBI Acting Director McCabe, the Resolution itself 
does not appear to incorporate this request.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          (1) Any meetings or discussions between or among 
        Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and former FBI 
        Acting Director McCabe, regarding conversations with 
        the President, including but not limited to--
                  (A) any reference concerning wearing a 
                recording device or preparing in any way to 
                record the President; and
                  (B) any reference concerning the invocation 
                of the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution 
                to remove the President from office.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\In pertinent part, the 25th Amendment provides:
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        Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the 
      principal officers of the executive departments or of such 
      other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the 
      President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
      House of Representatives their written declaration that the 
      President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of 
      his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the 
      powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
U.S. Const. amend. XXV, Sec. 4.
          (2) Any meetings or discussions between or among FBI 
        Acting Director McCabe and others at the FBI referring 
        or relating to commencing or continuing an obstruction 
        of justice or counterintelligence investigation of the 
        President.

                Background and Need for the Legislation


                               BACKGROUND

    Resolutions of inquiry, if properly drafted, are given 
privileged parliamentary status in the House. This means that, 
under certain circumstances, a resolution of inquiry can be 
considered on the House floor even if the committee to which it 
was referred has not ordered the resolution reported and the 
majority party's leadership has not scheduled it for 
consideration. Clause 7 of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives requires the committee to which the 
resolution is referred to act on the resolution within 14 
legislative days, or a motion to discharge the committee from 
consideration is considered privileged on the floor of the 
House. In calculating the days available for committee 
consideration, the day of introduction and the day of discharge 
are not counted.\3\
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    \3\Wm. Holmes Brown et al., House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, 
Precedents, and Procedures of the House ch. 49, sec. 6, at 834 (2017) 
[hereinafter House Practice].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Under the Rules and precedents of the House, a resolution 
of inquiry is a means by which the House may request 
information from the President or the head of one of the 
executive departments. According to Deschler's Precedents, it 
is a ``simple resolution making a direct request or demand of 
the President or the head of an executive department to furnish 
the House of Representatives with specific factual information 
in the possession of the executive branch.''\4\ Such 
resolutions must ask for facts, documents, or specific 
information; they may not be used to request an opinion or 
require an investigation.\5\ Resolutions of inquiry are not 
akin to subpoenas, they have no legal force, and thus 
compliance by the Executive Branch with the House's request for 
information is purely voluntary.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\7 Deschler's Precedents of the United States House of 
Representatives, H. Doc. No. 94-661, 94th Cong., 2d Sess., ch. 24, 
Sec. 8 (1994).
    \5\A resolution that seeks more than factual information does not 
enjoy privileged status. House Practice, at 833-34.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to a study conducted by the Congressional 
Research Service (CRS), between 1947 and 2017, 313 resolutions 
of inquiry were introduced in the House.\6\ Within this period, 
CRS found that ``two periods in particular, 1971-1975 and 2003-
2006, saw the highest levels of activity on resolutions of 
inquiry'' and that the ``Committees on Armed Services, Foreign 
Affairs, and the Judiciary have received the largest share of 
references.''\7\ CRS further found that ``in recent Congresses, 
such resolutions have overwhelmingly become a tool of the 
minority party in the House.''\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\Christopher M. Davis, Resolutions of Inquiry: An Analysis of 
Their Use in the House, 1947-2017, Cong. Res. Serv. R40879, at i (Nov. 
9, 2017).
    \7\Id.
    \8\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A committee has a number of choices after a resolution of 
inquiry is referred to it. It may vote on the resolution as is 
or it may amend it, and it may report the resolution favorably, 
unfavorably, or with no recommendation. The fact that a 
committee reports a resolution of inquiry adversely does not 
necessarily mean that the committee opposes looking into the 
matter. In the past, resolutions of inquiry have frequently 
been reported adversely for several reasons. The two most 
common reasons are substantial compliance and competing 
investigations.
    Over the period of 1947 to the present, 51 resolutions of 
inquiry (including H. Res. 243) were referred to the Judiciary 
Committee, according to CRS.\9\ Of these, only five (including 
H. Res. 243) were reported favorably, while 23 were ordered 
adversely, 22 were not reported, and one was reported without 
recommendation.\10\
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    \9\E-mail from Cong. Res. Serv. (Mar. 27, 2019) (on file with H. 
Comm. on the Judiciary Democratic staff).
    \10\Id.
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                        NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

    H. Res. 243 directs the Department of Justice to transmit 
to the House of Representatives certain materials that refer or 
relate to meetings and discussions that may have occurred 
between or among Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and 
former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Acting Director 
Andrew McCabe regarding conversations with President Donald 
Trump, including discussions concerning wearing a recording 
device or preparing in any way to record the President, and 
invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. The 
Resolution also seeks records related to discussions between or 
among Mr. McCabe and others at the FBI about launching or 
continuing an obstruction of justice or counterintelligence 
investigation of the President.
    In essence, this Resolution seeks records relating to 
concerns expressed at the very highest levels of the Department 
of Justice and the FBI about President Trump's allegedly 
illegal conduct, and his fitness for office. It also seeks 
records about the extraordinary measures that these leaders may 
have contemplated in view of these concerns.
    Congress and the American people would benefit from 
learning more about whether, in fact, the discussions referred 
to in this resolution occurred and, if so, what prompted such 
alarm among Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. McCabe, as well as other FBI 
officials, that they would consider these unprecedented 
actions.
    According to media reports, Deputy Attorney General 
Rosenstein became alarmed when the President fired James Comey 
as FBI Director after it was revealed that the FBI was 
investigating alleged contacts between individuals associated 
with the Trump campaign and the Russian government.\11\ Other 
events that reportedly troubled Mr. Rosenstein include 
President Trump's revealing classified intelligence to Russian 
officials in the Oval Office,\12\ news that the President had 
asked Mr. Comey to end an investigation into former National 
Security Advisor Michael Flynn,\13\ and reports that the 
President sought a loyalty pledge from Mr. Comey.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\Adam Goldman & Michael S. Schmidt, Rod Rosenstein Suggested 
Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment, N.Y. Times, 
Sept. 22, 2018, at A1, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/us/politics/
rod-rosenstein-wear-wire-25th-amendment.html.
    \12\Id.
    \13\Id.
    \14\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In discussions with various Department of Justice (DOJ) 
officials, including Mr. McCabe, Mr. Rosenstein is reported to 
have suggested secretly recording President Trump and invoking 
the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office ``to 
expose the chaos consuming the administration.''\15\ Mr. 
Rosenstein has denied these conversations ever occurred,\16\ 
but Mr. McCabe's contemporaneous notes describe these 
discussions,\17\ although he later downplayed how serious Mr. 
Rosenstein was at the time.\18\ H. Res. 243 seeks any 
information the DOJ possesses regarding these discussions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\Id.
    \16\Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky, McCabe memos say Rosenstein 
considered secretly recording Trump, Wash. Post, Sept. 21, 2018, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mccabe-memos-
say-rosenstein-considered-secretly-recording-trump/2018/09/21/f4aa9a62-
bdca-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html?utm_term=.f6d8d016536f.
    \17\Matt Zapotosky, McCabe says Rosenstein was `thinking off the 
top of his head' when he brought up 25th Amendment, Wash. Post, Feb. 
21, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/
mccabe-says-rosenstein-was-thinking-off-the-top-of-his-head-when-he-
brought-up-25th-amendment/2019/02/21/7f4c150a-35f4-11e9-af5b-
b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.805672342a9d.
    \18\Id.
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    H. Res. 243 also seeks information regarding Mr. McCabe's 
decisions to launch and continue an obstruction of justice and 
a counterintelligence investigation of President Trump. 
According to Mr. McCabe, he initiated these investigations into 
President Trump after Mr. Comey's dismissal, out of concern 
that the President was working on behalf of Russia against 
American interests. He was also concerned that the President 
fired Mr. Comey as a means of obstructing justice.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt & Nicholas Fandos, F.B.I. 
Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of 
Russia, N.Y. Times, Jan. 11, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/
us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In particular, Mr. McCabe was alarmed by President Trump's 
repeated efforts to mention the Russia investigation in the 
letter he sent to Mr. Comey firing him as FBI Director.\20\ He 
was also troubled by an interview the President gave to NBC 
News in which he told Lester Holt that he fired Mr. Comey 
because of the Russia investigation.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\Id.
    \21\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In an interview with 60 Minutes, Mr. McCabe discussed his 
decision to open the investigations into whether Mr. Trump 
fired Mr. Comey to hinder the investigation into Russian 
interference with the 2016 election and, if so, whether Mr. 
Trump was acting on behalf of the Russian government.\22\ He 
explained, ``I was speaking to the man who had just run for the 
presidency and won the election for the presidency and who 
might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, 
our most formidable adversary on the world stage. And that was 
something that troubled me greatly.''\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\Scott Pelley, Andrew McCabe: The Full 60 Minutes Interview, 60 
Minutes, Feb. 17, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-mccabe-
interview-former-acting-fbi-director-president-trump-investigation-
james-comey-during-russia-investigation-60-minutes/.
    \23\Id.
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    He further explained that he opened the investigations in 
order to protect the Russia investigation, stating, ``I was 
very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on 
absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were I 
removed quickly or reassigned or fired that the case could not 
be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.''\24\ When 
asked whether he opened the investigations ``because you feared 
that they would be made to go away,'' Mr. McCabe answered, 
``That's exactly right.''\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\Id.
    \25\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to Mr. McCabe, ``if the president committed 
obstruction of justice, fired the director of the of the FBI to 
negatively impact or to shut down our investigation of Russia's 
malign activity and possibly in support of his campaign, as a 
counterintelligence investigator you have to ask yourself, `Why 
would a president of the United States do that?' So all those 
same sorts of facts cause us to wonder is there an 
inappropriate relationship, a connection between this president 
and our most fearsome enemy, the government of Russia?''\26\ 
When asked, ``Are you saying that the president is in league 
with the Russians?'' he replied, ``I'm saying that the FBI had 
reason to investigate that.''\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\Id.
    \27\Id.
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    President Trump has relentlessly attacked Mr. McCabe, 
accusing him of bias because of his wife's political ties, and 
because of his role in the FBI's investigation into former 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.\28\ 
To the extent that questions remain about the origin of the 
investigations into President Trump's conduct-conduct that so 
deeply disturbed senior law enforcement officials that they 
opened a counterintelligence investigation and an obstruction 
of justice investigation into his actions, and they may have 
discussed secretly recording the President and seeking his 
removal from office under the 25th Amendment--this Resolution 
would help Congress determine whether DOJ officials acted 
properly with regard to investigating the President, and would 
provide a better understanding of the events that led them to 
take such actions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\Caitlin Oprysko, McCabe says he opened investigations into 
Trump to put Russia probe `on solid ground', Politico, Feb. 14, 2019, 
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/14/fbi-investigation-trump-
russia-1169846.
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                                Hearings

    The Committee on the Judiciary held no hearings on H. Res. 
243.

                        Committee Consideration

    On March 26, 2019, the Committee met in open session and 
ordered H. Res. 243 favorably reported, with an amendment, by a 
roll call vote of 22 to 0, a quorum being present.

                            Committee Votes

    In compliance with clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, the Committee advises that the 
following roll call vote occurred during the Committee's 
consideration of H. Res. 243.
    1. Motion to report H. Res. 243, as amended, favorably to 
the House was approved by a vote of 22 to 0.


                      Committee Oversight Findings

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives, the Committee advises that the 
findings and recommendations of the Committee, based on 
oversight activities under clause 2(b)(1) of rule X of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives, are incorporated in the 
descriptive portions of this report.

  New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures and Congressional Budget 
                          Office Cost Estimate

    With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section 
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and with respect 
to requirements of clause (3)(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives and section 402 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has requested 
but not received a cost estimate for this bill from the 
Director of Congressional Budget Office. The Committee has 
requested but not received from the Director of the 
Congressional Budget Office a statement as to whether this bill 
contains any new budget authority, spending authority, credit 
authority, or an increase or decrease in revenues or tax 
expenditures.

                    Duplication of Federal Programs

    No provision of H. Res. 243 establishes or reauthorizes a 
program of the Federal government known to be duplicative of 
another Federal program, a program that was included in any 
report from the Government Accountability Office to Congress 
pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program 
related to a program identified in the most recent Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance.

                    Performance Goals and Objectives

    The Committee states that pursuant to clause 3(c)(4) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, H. Res. 
243 would direct Attorney General William Barr to transmit to 
the House of Representatives certain documents and materials 
pertaining to: (1) meetings or discussions between Deputy 
Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and former Federal Bureau of 
Investigation (FBI) Acting Director Andrew McCabe regarding 
certain conversations with President Donald Trump; and (2) any 
meetings or discussions between or among FBI Acting Director 
McCabe and others at the FBI regarding certain matters.

                          Advisory on Earmarks

    In accordance with clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, H. Res. 243 does not contain any 
congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff 
benefits as defined in clause 9(d), 9(e), or 9(f) of rule XXI.

                      Section-by-Section Analysis

    The following discussion describes the Resolution as 
reported by the Committee.
    H. Res. 243 directs the Attorney General to transmit to the 
House, not later than 14 days after the Resolution is adopted, 
any such documents and other materials that refer or relate to:
          (1) Any meetings or discussions between or among 
        Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and former 
        FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, regarding 
        conversations with the President, including but not 
        limited to--
                  (A) any reference concerning wearing a 
                recording device or preparing in anyway to 
                record the President; and
                  (B) any reference concerning the invocation 
                of the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution 
                to remove the President from office.\29\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\In pertinent part, the 25th Amendment provides:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the 
      principal officers of the executive departments or of such 
      other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the 
      President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
      House of Representatives their written declaration that the 
      President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of 
      his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the 
      powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
U.S. Const. amend. XXV, Sec. 4.
          (2) Any meetings or discussions between or among FBI 
        Acting Director McCabe and others at the FBI referring 
        or relating to commencing or continuing an obstruction 
        of justice or counterintelligence investigation of the 
        President.

                            Additional Views

    For more than two years, the American people suffered from 
rampant speculation that President Trump had conspired (or 
``colluded'') with the Russian Federation to steal the 2016 
presidential election. This narrative had escalated to the 
point of wild conjecture among a cabal inside the FBI that 
President Trump could in fact be a Russian agent.
    However, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has finally and 
formally debunked the media and Democrat narrative that 
Vladimir Putin's minions infiltrated the presidential campaign 
of Donald Trump.
    This should come as a great relief to the American people. 
However, the nation must also heal from this farce and fully 
expose its origins so such a tragedy is never repeated in the 
future.
    On May 9, 2017, President Trump fired FBI Director James 
Comey, who oversaw the debacle that was the investigation into 
Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information. For 
his conduct in relation to that investigation, Director Comey 
was later deemed ``insubordinate'' by the DOJ Inspector 
General.
    In response to Comey's firing, the FBI appears to have 
opened at least two investigations into President Trump. One 
investigation pertained to counterintelligence, involving 
incredible theories such as the possibility that President 
Trump was an asset controlled by Vladimir Putin. The other 
investigation considered the possibility that the firing of 
Director Comey itself constituted obstruction of justice, 
despite Comey's clear mishandling of the Hillary Clinton 
investigation and the President's clear authority to relieve a 
subordinate of his or her duties.
    Soon after the initiation of these two investigations, it 
was reported high-ranking officials in the Department of 
Justice and the FBI had begun discussing methods to remove 
President Trump from office. One of these methods involved 
gaining the approval of the Vice President and the Cabinet to 
invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office, 
despite the fact that the 25th Amendment was originally 
intended to handle situations of presidential incapacitation. 
It was also reported Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and 
Andrew McCabe, then-Acting FBI Director, discussed plans to 
surreptitiously record the President of the United States.
    On March 24, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee received a 
letter from Attorney General William Barr, outlining the 
principal conclusions reached by Special Counsel Mueller. Among 
those conclusions are that ``the Special Counsel's 
investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone 
associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its 
efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.'' The 
Special Counsel's report, therefore, demonstrates all the 
conspiracy theories of President Trump's purported collusion 
with the Russians represented nothing more than the fevered 
imaginations of the President's political opponents.
    However, the American people were nevertheless bombarded 
with ridiculous and false allegations against President Trump 
for the past several years. The investigation cast a cloud over 
this administration, and diminished the American people's faith 
in their government. It is therefore insufficient to simply 
tell them to move on and put the entire saga behind them. The 
American people deserve a full accounting of how a subset of 
individuals inside the FBI and DOJ were able to get away with 
opening and running these ill-founded investigations, over a 
period of years, involving millions of taxpayer dollars spent 
to investigate a political candidate, his campaign, and 
eventually, the duly-elected President of the United States.
    Imagine the uproar from Democrats and the media had there 
been an indication that a faction of FBI and DOJ officials with 
demonstrated biases against President Obama had proposed 
recording him, opened obstruction of justice and 
counterintelligence investigations against him, and discussed 
the possibility of removing him from office via the 25th 
Amendment.
    There must be accountability for what transpired inside our 
law enforcement and intelligence communities before, during, 
and following the 2016 presidential election. Ranking Member 
Collins' Resolution of Inquiry, approved unanimously by 
Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, intends 
to achieve just that.

The ROI

    The ROI seeks documents related to conversations--whose 
existence was confirmed by the Committee's interviews--
concerning surreptitiously recording President Trump and 
invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. No duly-
elected president, whether Republican or Democrat, should be 
placed in a position where his or her Department of Justice and 
Federal Bureau of Investigation are engaged in an attempt to 
overturn the will of the American people simply because they 
hate the man or woman who won the election. Such an effort, 
which many Members have characterized as an attempted coup, 
defies belief in the United States of America. Yet testimony 
provided to Congress by multiple individuals confirmed that 
many viewed such conversations as completely serious.
    It is imperative that Congress understand the origins of 
this effort. Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and former 
Acting Director McCabe have offered conflicting accounts of 
their alleged conversations about invoking the 25th Amendment. 
The conflicts are profound enough that both accounts cannot be 
true, which raises questions as to who has lied, including to 
Congress. Lying to Congress and impeding a congressional 
investigation are, of course, felonies. Congress must, 
therefore, have access to documents related to conversations 
surrounding this planned surveillance and possible invocation 
of the 25th Amendment, to ensure American history books relay 
the extent of DOJ and FBI wrongdoing.
    Testimony before the Judiciary Committee indicates Andrew 
McCabe, who was fired from the FBI and referred for criminal 
prosecution, kept memoranda memorializing high-level DOJ and 
FBI plans to secretly record President Trump and invoke the 
25th Amendment to remove him from office. Just as Comey's memos 
were released (partially redacted), Congress must have access 
to the so-called ``McCabe memos,'' to promote transparency and 
Americans' trust in our government. Congress is fully capable 
of protecting classified and other sensitive information, as 
part of its constitutional oversight responsibilities. There is 
no good reason to keep this information from the people's 
representatives.
    Accordingly, on September 27, 2018, former Chairman Bob 
Goodlatte subpoenaed the Department of Justice to produce the 
McCabe memos. The Department of Justice has therefore been on 
notice for many months that the House Judiciary Committee seeks 
production of the McCabe memos. Nevertheless, DOJ managed to 
delay their response to the subpoena until this Congress, when 
the subpoena was no longer viable. Running out the clock has 
thus protected the agencies' interest in secrecy, but doesn't 
protect the American people's interest in transparency.
            Sincerely,
                                   Doug Collins.

                                  [all]