Sen. Whitehouse slams Rosenstein for lack of transparency at DOJ: 'It is someone's policy, and I want it stopped'

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Sen. Whitehouse presses Rosenstein on unanswered questions from DOJ

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questions Rod Rosenstein during Judiciary Committee hearing.

Tensions flared Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., complained about a lack of transparency from the Department of Justice (DOJ), and said that a "Democrat" regime at the DOJ would fix many of those problems.

Rosenstein was before the committee to testify about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, alleged Trump campaign collusion with those efforts and allegations of investigative misconduct by the DOJ in pursuing the Trump campaign. The investigation, which was called "Crossfire Hurricane," culminated in a probe by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who did not recommend any charges related to collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

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Whitehouse, in his questioning of Rosenstein, did not focus on Crossfire Hurricane, however, but instead lambasted the DOJ and Rosenstein for not responding to questions for the record, also called QFRs, for many Judiciary Committee hearings during Rosenstein's tenure as deputy attorney general.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., grilled former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Wednesday on an alleged lack of transparency from the Department of Justice in recent years. (Reuters, AP)

"The day will come when there is a Democrat Department of Justice and attorney general. The day will come when there is a Democrat sitting in that chair," Whitehouse said at the closing of his fiery remarks, pointing toward committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "And a policy that you don't ever get QFRs answered by the Department that we oversee is not a good policy."

He added: "It is someone's policy, and I want it stopped."

Whitehouse did not begin his time by asking Rosenstein questions, but rather talked about "the incredible shrinking Judiciary Committee" and lamented what he said was the panel's shrinking influence and increasing partisanship.

"One other aspect of the incredible shrinking Judiciary Committee is that we used to require the FBI and the Department of Justice to answer our questions. Now we just get ignored. There is a bin someplace at the FBI and the Department of Justice into which our questions get thrown," Whitehouse said.

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Whitehouse then noted that during Rosenstein's tenure at the DOJ, the committee held many hearings for which it asked for input from the DOJ, but the committee never heard back from the Justice Department.

"None, none of the committee's questions for the record were answered. Ever. None," Whitehouse said. "Can you explain why that took place, Mr. Rosenstein, under your watch? Where was the policy not to answer this committee's questions?"

Rosenstein began saying that he could "recall answering correspondence," before Whitehouse cut him off, explaining that "letters are a whole separate issue."

Rosenstein continued to say he had answered "questions for the record" for his confirmation hearing but Whitehouse reminded him of the many other hearings for which the DOJ did not answer such queries, and asked exactly who in the Trump administration was behind what appeared to be a policy of ignoring committee questions.

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"These are all the ones I listed, and in all of them, no questions for the record answered," Whitehouse said as Rosenstein continued without directly addressing the question. "That's a lot of hearings."

"I'm thinking there's a policy at the Department of Justice not to answer committee QFRs... unless you think it's a coincidence that in all those hearings no QFRs got answered... Something's up," Whitehouse said.

The senator looked to Rosenstein, who remained quiet, then continued to air his frustrations about the Judiciary Committee's activities.

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"And now we can't even get a QFR answered and out of the clear blue sky the first thing we're investigating is the exact thing that the Trump campaign wants us to investigate. The only time we ask for anything from this department is when it's a political errand," Whitehouse said, raising his voice. "There is a stonewall and we should not be selective about whose information gets through the stonewall at the Department."

Whitehouse then noted that his time was up. But before Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, began his questioning of Rosenstein, Whitehouse backtracked, saying, "[m]ay I ask a QFR, as to what the heck is going on with our nonresponse to QFR's?"

Rosenstein never directly answered Whitehouse's question about where the "policy" of not answering committee questions came from.

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Making news earlier in the hearing, Rosenstein testified that he would not have signed a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant renewal application for former Trump campaign aide Carter Page had he known about the since-revealed misconduct surrounding those warrants.

"If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application?" committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Rosenstein.

"No, I would not," Rosenstein said.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.