(CNSNews.com) - Eight Republican members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence held a press conference today about the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray answer their questions about the raid.
“No one is above the law—and that includes the attorney general and the 7th floor of the FBI,” Rep. Trent Kelley (R.-Miss.) said at the press conference.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R.-Okla.) echoed this view.
“Attorney General Garland goes out and says that no one is above the law,” said Mullin. “I agree with that statement. No one is. That includes you, Attorney General Garland. That includes you, Director Wray. And I am here to tell you if the Democrats do not hold you accountable for your actions, the Republican Party will.”
Rep. Mike Turner (R.-Ohio), the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, explained what the Republican members of the committee expected from Garland and Wray.
“We have serious questions concerning the actions taken by Director Wray and ordered by Attorney General Garland to raid Mar-a-Lago and the personal residence of Donald Trump,” said Turner. “Both of them are subject to oversight by Congress and it is our job to ensure that they are not abusing their discretion or politicizing the powers that we have given them.
“Earlier this week, we requested that they disclose to our committee the national security basis upon which they have ordered this raid,” Turner said. “Because many other options were available to them, we are very concerned of the method that was used in raiding Mar-a-Lago and the nine hours that transpired while they were in the former president’s home.
“We are glad that Attorney General Garland has begun the process of releasing some of the information to the American public and the American public deserves answers and certainly our responsibility as Congress is to make certain that we provide appropriate oversight,” said Turner. “They will be releasing apparently the warrant and the inventory, but it will still leave many unanswered questions.
“That’s why our request remains that the Director of the FBI and the Attorney General disclose to this committee the imminent national security threat upon which they based their decision to order a raid upon the president’s home,” said Turner. Again, underscoring that there were many other options available to them.
“We believe that after the release today that these questions will still remain unanswered,” Turner continued.
Turner also said they wanted Rep. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), who serves as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, to back up their request with a subpoena if necessary.
“We are requesting that the chairman of the committee support our request for the disclosure of this information to our committee and we are requesting that it be backed up, if they do not comply with our request, by a subpoena from our committee,” said Turner.
“Our committee is intended to work with classified information. There is nothing that would be the subject matter of this that cannot be disclosed to our committee,” Turner said. “And we also are the committee that deals with national security threats and we want to know what was this imminent national security threat upon which this was based.”