The Senate Judiciary Committee will investigate efforts by Republican and Democrat officials to influence recent FBI investigations, including the probe into the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, and efforts to investigate Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
In a letter to Ranking Member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he agreed the public deserves a “full accounting” of attempted interference with “law enforcement investigations” under both the Trump and Obama administrations.
“There should be no improper interference with FBI investigations to favor any elected official or candidate of either party. The committee has an obligation to pursue all evidence of such misconduct,” Grassley said in his letter, which was publicly released early Wednesday.
Grassley was responding to a Feinstein letter requesting the Senate Judiciary Committee look into details surrounding Comey’s interactions with President Trump before fired, as well as what involvement former Attorney General Loretta Lynch had in the FBI’s investigation into Clinton.
Comey said last week that Lynch asked him to call the FBI’s Clinton probe a “matter” rather than an investigation, which many Republicans saw as a sign of political influence. Democrats, meanwhile, have said they are worried that President Trump may have fired Comey in order to blow up the FBI’s probe into his alleged ties to Russia.
Democrats have said so far that they have not seen any evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.
