By RYAN SKAITH
The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a rare joint statement Tuesday blasting the Trump administration for excluding them from a briefing on the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the committee’s top Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, called the administration’s refusal to include the panel in the Monday night briefing “unacceptable.”
The senators argued that their committee maintains oversight jurisdiction over the three federal agencies involved in the operation.
Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, and Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat who has served for 28 years, are among the most senior voices in Congress. Their unified pushback signals a significant bipartisan rift over the administration’s handling of congressional oversight regarding the high-profile arrest.
