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SALT LAKE CITY — Two House committees want an accounting from U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber of his investigation into whether the Justice Department and the FBI abused its authority in their probes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump's election campaign.
The Republican ranking members of the House Government Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Huber on Monday seeking an update of his work.
"Your investigation has been ongoing for over nine months," wrote Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the top GOP members of the Oversight and Judiciary committees, respectively.
"During the course of our extensive investigation we have interviewed more than a dozen current and former DOJ and FBI personnel, and were surprised to hear none of these potentially informative witnesses testified to speaking with you," the letter says.
The two committees started a joint investigation 14 months ago when they were in Republican control.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions quietly appointed Huber after the committees called for a review into whether Department of Justice or FBI employees were biased during their now-closed probe of Clinton's use of a private email server, and as they began investigating Trump campaign ties to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
In addition to an investigation into the request for a warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page, Huber is looking into whether the Department of Justice ignored allegations about Clinton's ties to the sale of U.S. uranium rights to a subsidiary of a Russian nuclear energy company. He was also reportedly investigating Clinton’s use of a personal email server and the dealings of her family’s foundation.
An Obama appointee, Huber has served as U.S. attorney in Utah since June 2015. Now retired Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, saved his job after Trump asked U.S. attorneys across the country to resign so he could appoint new ones.
Huber has been tight-lipped about his investigation. He declined to answer questions about it during an exchange with reporters last month, saying "there are matters too sensitive to talk about." His office referred a request for comment to the Justice Department.
In the letter, Jordan and Collins note that Huber refused to testify last month at a subcommittee hearing titled, "Oversight of Nonprofit Organization: A Case Study on the Clinton Foundation."
"We were disappointed to learn from the (Justice Department) you were not enthusiastic about testifying when declining this invitation," they wrote.
Specifically, the lawmakers want Huber to provide them by Jan. 21 with the number of witnesses he has interviewed along with their names and the number remaining to be interviewed. They also want to know how many Foreign Intelligent Surveillance Act or FISA applications as well as the number and nature of documents he reviewed.
