"Downright Chilling": Rosenstein "Threatened" To Subpoena Congressmen In Closed-Door Meeting

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to "subpoena" GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee during a tense January meeting involving committee members and senior DOJ/FBI officials, according to emails seen by Fox News documenting the encounter described by aides as a "personal attack."

That said, Rosenstein was responding to a threat to hold him in contempt of Congress - and the "threat" to subpoena GOP records was ostensibly in order for him to be able to defend himself.

Rosenstein allegedly threatened to "turn the tables" on the committee's aggressive document requests, according to Fox.

“The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee's then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel. “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall.”

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