Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday applauded the top House Intelligence Committee Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes, Calif., for his quest to expose alleged FBI corruption in the agency against President Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
“If Hillary Clinton had been elected none of this stuff would have been known. So I just congratulate him on being a patriotic person,” Grassley, R-Iowa, said on Fox News, about Nunes, who served as chairman the House Intelligence panel for four years before Democrats won control of the House.
Grassley, first elected to the Senate in 1980, is a longtime critic of the FBI. In 2006 he grilled Robert Mueller — then FBI director, and now special counsel of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections — about what he called illegitimate surveillance of anti-war groups.
.@ChuckGrassley says @DevinNunes has done a “great service for the American people” by investigating corruption at the FBI.
“If Hillary Clinton had been elected none of this stuff would have been known. So I just congratulate him on being a patriotic person.” pic.twitter.com/9VCnxHuAU9
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 8, 2019
Nunes and some House Republican colleagues have argued there was no basis to launch Mueller’s probe, contending it’s part of a “deep state” that sought to undermine Trump, the Republican nominee, and cover for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Critics of Nunes, including the current House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., say he essentially ran interference for the Trump White House in an effort to cover-up evidence of collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Nunes said on Sunday he intends to send criminal referrals to the Department of Justice this week regarding the scandal.
“We’ve been working on this for two-and-a-half years. We’re prepared to, this week, to send those referrals over … we think they’re pretty clear,” Nunes said.
Grassley said he “presumes” Nunes has a list of specific individuals who participated in unlawful or unethical behavior at the FBI.
“I made similar referrals as a result of people saying they had information during the Kavanaugh hearing,” Grassley said. “It ought to be looked into by the Justice Department and then the Justice Department makes the final call.”
.@DevinNunes says now that Bill Barr is in place as AG, he can send criminal referrals to the DOJ regarding corruption at the FBI.
“We’ve been working on this for two and a half years. We’re prepared to this week to send those referrals over … we think they’re pretty clear.” pic.twitter.com/4mh1yq0A17
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 8, 2019
Still, at the center of the debate over the Mueller investigation are the details of his report, which most congressional Democrats says should be made public in full.
Attorney General William Barr has said he intends to make “as much of the report public as possible” while redacting information that cannot by law be released.
Meanwhile, Trump and his allies say they want “the people who started” the Russia probe to be held accountable.
“[Nunes] got into this very deeply,” Grassley said. “I just congratulate him … for following through even though he is now in the minority to see that justice is served.”
