Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., will seek a financial audit of special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation into whether President Trump colluded with the Russians ahead of the 2016 election.
Meadows, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview for C-SPAN’s Newsmakers airing Sunday that the audit is needed to ensure the Mueller team is properly spending the millions of dollars allocated so far to the Russia collusion probe. The audit would also provide information about the scope of the investigation, which the Mueller team has resisted providing to Congress.
Meadows said he would ask next week to have the Government Accountability Office conduct the audit, although it’s not clear if Mueller would be compelled to turn over the information.
“There will be a request from us to audit the financial resources of this investigation,” Meadows said. “It is certainly within the parameters. It is appropriated funding from Congress.”
Republican lawmakers have been at odds with the Department of Justice over a memo Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote to Mueller last summer that provided the parameters of the Trump-Russia probe. The department has refused requests to turn over the memo, arguing earlier this month that doing so would “threaten the integrity,” of the investigation.
The Justice Department reported in December that Mueller had spent nearly $7 million on the first four months of the investigation.
