Rep. Goodlatte: We want to see everything the IG has seen

House Republicans want more information from the FBI regarding the probe into Hillary Clinton's emails and the firing of ousted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Was the FBI biased? House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte weighs in on 'Your World.'

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: All right, Andrew McCabe in his role and his leanings toward the Hillary Clinton campaign and against Donald Trump, that is the stuff of sort of judicial lore right now.

But the House Judiciary chairman, Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, going a little bit further in his interview since issuing subpoenas trying to get to the bottom of this and so many other things.

Congressman, thank you for joining us.

We don't know when the inspector general's report is going to be out on McCabe and what role he played compromising and leaking certain data. But it seems to be a given that he did. You want to find out what with these subpoenas?

REP. BOB GOODLATTE, R—VIRGINIA: Well, we want to see everything that the inspector general has seen, which is we understand about 1.2 million documents.

We’ re told in our conversations with the department and with the bureau that we don’ t need to see all of those because a lot of them don’ t pertain directly to...

CAVUTO: We might have lost that. We will try re-effort that.

What is at issue here is the role and the degree to which McCabe willy-nilly was leaking information that he shouldn't have and whether some of the emails and other information that became available regarding Hillary Clinton maybe painted a picture of bias much earlier than thought, something that the chairman has been looking into and through these subpoenas hopes to get more information.

The fact of the matter is, though, we're a long way from that. But it, to some Democrats, has been deemed to be a distraction.

Bob Goodlatte, I apologize for those technical problems.

But is it your sense that this information is going to reinforce the view that there was a cabal against Donald Trump at the time, that there was, led by McCabe and others, an effort to express favoritism to her? What do you hope to find?

GOODLATTE: Well, we want to find out why it was that the FBI was operating the way it was in 2016 and on into 2017 with extreme bias.

We have seen evidence of that with the actions of a number of people in the department, and particularly with the text messages of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. And this contrast between how they handled the Clinton investigation and how they handled the Trump-Russia investigation is truly shocking.

That is not what the American people expect. They want neutral, unbiased, professional investigations into each of these matters and be satisfied that the department is upholding its responsibility to investigate crimes, but do it in a way that is fair and trustworthy.

And that's not what the public came away from with the handling of these matters by James Comey and Andrew McCabe.

CAVUTO: Is it your sense right now that whatever the I.G. comes up with is too little too late to ascertain what you and others have said you knew to be the case, that there was bias going on there?

Because Americans might collectively shrug their shoulders and say, all right, so there's bias. That guy is out of there right now. It has no influence on what Bob Mueller is doing. You say what?

GOODLATTE: We don't want to interfere with Robert Mueller's investigation.

We want to make sure that the FBI regains its reputation as the premier law enforcement agency of the nation and the world. And we want to make sure that when we go into the 2020 election cycle, some of the things that may be encountered in 2016 are not repeated with accusations and charges and countercharges that are made like they were in 2016.

It needs to be handled like any other investigation, professionally, confidentially, and not used in a way that can influence the election process. And both Republicans and Democrats should be concerned about that, because you have both concern about what Director Comey decided in not prosecuting Hillary Clinton.

But then you also have questions about why it was that he announced he was reopening the investigation just a week before the election and made that all known publicly and possibly influencing the election that way as well.

CAVUTO: Yes.

GOODLATTE: So, this is something that is important. It's not about Hillary Clinton. It's about how the FBI conducted itself. And we need to make sure that that is fixed.

And I will say this, that I think Christopher Wray has gone a long way toward cleaning house there. And if he keeps that up, that is going to restore a lot of the confidence that the American people have that the department is taking a new tack.

CAVUTO: You're talking about the FBI director, Chris Wray.

GOODLATTE: Right.

CAVUTO: Real quickly sir, McCabe has made a big deal of the fact that his pension was denied at the last second. Do you think that was justified, that he shouldn't get a pension?

GOODLATTE: Well, first of all, his pension is not entirely lost. I don't know all the ramifications of it. But he's still entitled to a great portion of his pension.

But the fact of the matter is that I think Attorney General Sessions made the correct decision, based upon reports, that McCabe authorized leaks to the media and then gave false information about that during the investigation conducted by the inspector general.

We will find out more with the inspector general's report, but I think that is the appropriate step taken by the attorney general. And there needed to be changes in personnel at the top of the FBI, given all the other things that the inspector general has investigated and that we're investigating related to the FISA warrant applications and how they handled both the Clinton and Trump investigations during the campaign.

CAVUTO: Chairman Goodlatte, thank you very much. Very good seeing you.

GOODLATTE: Thanks, Neil. Good to see you.

CAVUTO: All right.

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