Robert Mueller may be done with the subject of Russia and alleged collusion but Republicans are not.
Now that Mueller has reported there was no collusion and Attorney General William Barr has concluded Trump cannot be prosecuted for obstruction, Republicans want to turn their fire on those who initiated and fueled the 22-month investigation.
Last night, former FBI Director James Comey tweeted out a picture of himself standing in a forest with the caption: “So many questions.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, responded: “Could not agree more. See you soon.” At a press conference Monday, Graham elaborated on what he meant, saying that there was a need to get more answers on why and how the DOJ and FBI investigated Trump.
“By any reasonable standard, Mr. Mueller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign,” Graham said. “You cannot say that about the other side of the story. So I hope what Mr. Barr will do, for the country’s sake, is appoint somebody outside the current system to look into these allegations, somebody we all trust, and let them do what Mr. Mueller did.”
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Devin Nunes said he’d be pushing for charges against some of those involved in the Trump-Russia investigation: “We are working on a criminal referral, so many of the dirty cops, people will find out who actually we believe those dirty cops are. We’ll be sending that to Attorney General Barr among other names I think people will be surprised at.”
[Related: Harry Reid rips James Comey for doing ‘nothing’ about Russian election meddling]
Graham outlined some of the issues that he was concerned about at the FBI and the DOJ: “When it comes to the FISA warrant, the Clinton campaign, the counter intelligence investigation, it’s pretty much been swept under the rug except by a few Republicans in the House. Those days are over.”
He made it clear he was worried that bias had played a role in the Trump-Russia investigations: “I’d like to find somebody like a Mr. Mueller who could look into what happened with the FISA warrant and what happened with the counterintelligence investigation. Am I right to be concerned? It seems pretty bad on its face. But somebody like a Mr. Mueller to look at that so that, if nobody else, those who believe that the FBI and the Department of Justice were playing politics — that they wanted Clinton to win and Trump to lose.”
House Republicans are also re-emphasizing their complaints about possible bias at the DOJ and FBI, focusing on the decisions made by James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and others at the FBI and DOJ.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R.-Ohio, told Fox News that the involvement of Fusion GPS in the Trump-Russia saga needed to be further investigated, and said that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and others needed to be brought back before Congress.
[Also read: Comey defends decisions in Clinton investigation]
Christopher Steele, the author of the “Trump Dossier,” was paid by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was funded in part by the Clinton campaign and the DNC through the Perkins Coie law firm. Republicans have alleged that Steele’s funding and bias was withheld from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that the FISA process was abused.
Meadows said: “If Jerry Nadler wants to get to the truth, let’s bring in Glenn Simpson — he started this with a fake dossier — who actually has pleaded the Fifth. Let’s go ahead and bring in a lot of the individuals who put this false narrative out there. If we really want to get to the truth, let’s be about the truth.”
Jordan backed Meadows: “Jerry Nadler sent out 81 letters, because the Mueller Report wasn’t the bombshell they hoped for, so they’re starting a whole new fishing expedition. 81 letters to 60 different people. There are two key people that he didn’t send letters to, he didn’t send one to Glenn Simpson and he didn’t send one to Christopher Steele, the foreigner hired by the Clinton campaign to write the dossier that was the basis for this whole twisted deal.”
If the Mueller Report was going to be released, Jordan said, then everything else should: “By golly, release it all. Show us that FISA application, show us the 302s, show us the information they gave the Gang of Eight. The Gang of Eight — Adam Schiff was a part of that.”
Jordan said that he’d urged President Trump to declassify as much of this information as possible: “I’ve urged him to do, to release the stuff I just described. I sure have. The stuff that Jim Comey, Andy McCabe, Jim Baker, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, all the stuff that they had started with the dossier and all the stuff that they started initially with this investigation prior to the election, I’ve urged him to do that.”
Last fall, President Trump called for a wide swath of this information to be declassified, but then backed down: “I met with the DOJ concerning the declassification of various UNREDACTED documents. They agreed to release them but stated that so doing may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe. Also, key Allies’ called to ask not to release.”
Trump continued: “Therefore, the Inspector General has been asked to review these documents on an expedited basis. I believe he will move quickly on this (and hopefully other things which he is looking at). In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary. Speed is very important to me — and everyone!”
None of these documents have been released yet, but the issue of FISA abuse is also being examined by the Department of Justice itself.
Last year, DOJ’s Inspector General announced the start of the FISA abuse probe by his office, saying he was doing so following requests from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Republican members of Congress. These GOP lawmakers alleged the DOJ and FBI had abused the FISA process during the investigation of Trump and his associates.
The inspector general’s office said it would “examine the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person.” That “certain U.S. person” is believed to be Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
The DOJ IG also said it would “review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source. Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.” The “alleged FBI confidential source” is widely believed to be Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy whose so-called Trump dossier was used in FISA applications presented before the Court to justify FISA warrants.
The DOJ’s Inspector General confirmed that its investigation was still ongoing last week.
