The Justice Department's rare weekend request sparked enough outrage that the agency sent a follow-up letter Sunday stating that the government "does not request (and has never requested) that the defendant surrender before his Congressional testimony" and that the surrender process can take several weeks or months after the court sets a date.
House Oversight chair James Comer, R-Ky., on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" called the timing of the letter "odd," and said: "It's very troubling and I believe that this is another violation of the law. This is obstruction of justice."
The initial letter also sparked five Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee – Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mike Johnson, Chip Roy, Harriet Hageman and Dan Bishop – to commit to returning to Washington, D.C. from their districts earlier than planned in order to hold the agency accountable.
Gaetz, Fla., the first Republican to say he would come back early, had triggered the other members to join him by tweeting: "The DOJ is now actively committing the crime of obstructing a congressional investigation. … If Devin Archer isn’t in the witness chair Monday, we better haul every SOB at the DOJ before congress EVERY DAY to make them pay for this."
