Four Republican senators are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate how the Department of Justice and FBI handled its probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election before special counsel Robert Mueller.
“The Justice Department cannot credibly investigate itself without these enhanced measures of independence to ensure that the public can have confidence in the outcome,” the four lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, noting that a special prosecutor has more tools and prosecutorial power than an inspector general.
The lawmakers — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Lindsey Graham of North Carolina, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — also released a new version of a criminal referral sent to the Justice Department earlier this year for Christopher Steele, the former British spy and author of the Trump-Russia dossier.
The basis for the criminal referral is revealed in the new version, and the senators say Steele “materially misled the FBI” by saying he had only shared the information he collected for the dossier with them and Fusion GPS — the opposition research firm that hired him — when he had actually given the information to the media.
“Thus the basis for the warrant authorizing surveillance on a U.S. citizen rests largely on Mr. Steele’s credibility. The Department of Justice has a responsibility to determine whether Mr. Steele provided false information to the FBI and whether the FBI’s representations to the court were in error,” the referral said.
Due to classified documents given to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI amid its own probe into Russia, the senators write that “it appears that either Mr. Steele lied to the FBI or the British court, or that the classified documents reviewed by the Committee contain materially false statements.”
Graham and Grassley also asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate the federal government’s request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. That request came in the form of a letter sent last month, but released Thursday.
As part of the criminal referral for Steele, the lawmakers say two separate FISA applications — which were approved — to surveil Page “relied heavily on Mr. Steele’s dossier claims.”
In June 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee the dossier was relied on heavily because Steele was considered reliable in his past work with the FBI.
“Indeed, the documents we have reviewed show that the FBI took important investigative steps largely based on Mr. Steele’s information and relying heavily on his credibility,” the criminal referral said, adding, “There is substantial evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele materially misled the FBI about a key aspect of his dossier efforts, one which bears on his credibility.”
In the letter to the IG, they asked him to review the relationship the FBI and Justice Department had with Steele and whether it was improper, as well what relationship DOJ official Bruce Ohr had with him.
Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In addition to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Russia, the Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting one. The House Intelligence Committee wrapped its up this week amid partisan fighting.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo in February alleging the FBI did not reveal in its FISA warrant application in October 2016 that Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, who had been paid in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
President Trump and his allies in Congress allege that the Justice Department and FBI abused the warrant process. However, the October 2016 FISA warrant came a month after Page left the Trump campaign, and he had long been on the bureau’s radar since 2013 for his relationships to Moscow.
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released their own memo and said the FBI acted correctly and unbiased in how it got the FISA warrant on Page.
