A top Republican senator blamed U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation for presenting a roadblock to documents sought by Congress.
This is why Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said “it is incredibly disappointing” if the federal prosecutor does not intend to release an interim report before the Nov. 3 election due to concerns about such a disclosure being viewed as political as Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo reported on Sunday.
“What’s political is if he doesn’t report,” the Wisconsin Republican declared. Johnson said the “deep state” has, “through these other investigations,” prevented the public “from knowing what happened with the FBI’s corruption of their investigation, the corruption of the transition process, for about three-and-a-half years.”
“We have been prevented from getting documents because John Durham doesn’t want us to in any way, shape, or form affect his prosecution,” Johnson said. “So, the bottom line,” he added, is “that means the American people might go to the polls … without knowing the full extent and all the detail of all the corruption, again, of that FBI investigation, and the corruption of the transition process.”
As a remedy, Johnson said Attorney General William Barr should ensure that documents requests, including his own, are met in the near future. The senator also called on Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to declassify information targeted by congressional subpoenas before the election. “The political nature is if we don’t provide that information,” Johnson insisted, making the opposite argument of Democrats and some national security veterans who have raised concerns about an “October Surprise.”
Last week, Johnson released a report focused on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his foreign dealings, which critics claim was designed to influence the Nov. 3 election.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who made an appearance earlier in the show, said a “more damning” disclosure is imminent after he released records showing British former intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s main source for his anti-Trump dossier was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation a decade ago. Late last week, Barr sent a letter to Graham revealing the declassified information about Steele’s primary sub-source and noting that he alerted Radcliffe “to certain classified information in the possession of the intelligence community, also brought to my attention by Mr. Durham, which bear upon the FBI’s knowledge concerning the reliability of the dossier.”
[READ MORE: Jim Jordan asks Christopher Wray whether FBI is investigating Hunter Biden]
Setting himself apart from Graham, Johnson said he is not pleased with the records production from of the FBI, complaining of heavy redactions on documents lawmakers do receive. Johnson subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray last month to appear before the homeland security panel, which he did last week, and produce “all records” related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russian election interference and allegations of Trump-Russia collusion.
“Let me just give you one example. Here is a document we got from the General Services Administration,” Johnson said. “You can see that it’s an email and everything is presented except for the very bottom: They redacted the mobile phone number of the person writing the email. Here is the exact same email we got from the FBI. You see something different here? Everything is redacted. … I had to finally subpoena the FBI. They are on their second extension. Everything is due by, I think, the 30th of September and that’s the kind of information we get — it’s noninformation. We have to fight over redacting the same documents that we get from other agencies. So I am not happy at all with the document production we’ve gotten out of Director Wray and the FBI, not even close.”
[READ MORE: Rand Paul urges William Barr to launch criminal investigation into Hunter Biden]
In an appeal to Wray, the senator argued the bureau can only restore its credibility and integrity through transparency.
“When we finally do get these classified sections unredacted, when they become declassified, if you look at what information you have and you have to ask yourself the question, ‘What national security interest was at stake here? Why was this ever redacted?’ The answer is almost always because it embarrassed the agency, or it embarrassed a powerful person,” Johnson said. “That is not the reason to classify information. It’s certainly not the reason to keep the truth from the American public, and that’s all I’ve been trying to do is I’ve been trying to reveal the truth.”
