The war between Republican House members and the Department of Justice ramped up on Friday morning when a senior FBI agent showed up for an interview with House investigators accompanied by two attorneys which led to threats of calling Capitol police.
According to a report from the Washington Post’s Jaqueline Alemany and Devlin Barrett, agent Elvis Chan showed up to testify in a closed-door meeting and immediately incurred the wrath of an investigator working for House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The report notes Chan was called in because he is allegedly “involved with a Justice Department effort to censor conservative voices on social media.”
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The Post is reporting that Chan was accompanied by both his personal lawyer as well as a Justice Department lawyer which set off sparks and led to the Capitol police threat.
According to the report, “Larry Berger, the personal lawyer representing Chan, said the committee insisted Chan could be accompanied by either an FBI lawyer or his personal lawyer, but not both. Berger, a lawyer who has long represented federal agents, said the demand was unusual and not a common practice of congressional committees.”
According to Berger, “The question is, why do we have this seemingly arbitrary distinction being made by the committee, and why are they interfering with his choice of attorneys?”
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“Chan insisted on having both lawyers with him – which Berger said was unsurprising in this instance because Chan has been named in lawsuits stemming from his FBI work on social media,” the Post is reporting, “The committee did not back down, and at one point a person on the committee suggested they would summon the Capitol Police to remove the FBI lawyer from the Rayburn Building, where the interview was to take place, Berger said.”
The Justice Department has weighed in, issuing a statement saying Chan was “denied the right to have his chosen legal counsel accompany him,” and that the FBI lawyer was ordered to “leave the premises.”
“This is a significant departure from normal procedures and an unnecessary escalation of this Committee’s treatment of FBI officials,” the spokesperson said. “The FBI employee remains willing to take part in a voluntary interview with appropriate legal representation.”
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