Sen. Lindsey Graham gave a preview of what he plans to do next after unveiling declassified documents from the Russia investigation.
The documents, released on Friday, show that the FBI gathered little to no evidence of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia in early 2017.
Among them was a 57-page transcript of the FBI’s interview with a top source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who compiled an anti-Trump dossier used by the FBI in its investigation, who contradicted several of its claims.
Graham, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Wall Street Journal that he wants “to go from the bottom of the pyramid to the top and find out just how many people were informed” about the source interview.
“Those who knew about this exculpatory information, or should have known, and yet who continued — they are in legal jeopardy,” the South Carolina Republican added.
Graham is leading an investigation into the origins of the Russia inquiry that dogged President Trump and his associates until the spring of 2019. Democrats have voiced concern that the investigation is a politically motivated effort to attack the president’s rivals. The senator said on Sunday he will grant the Democrats’ request to call Robert Mueller to testify about his special counsel investigation after he wrote a Washington Post op-ed defending it.
Dozens more prominent figures connected to the Russia investigation may face subpoenas. Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a public hearing in early June, and DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with the committee behind closed doors in late June.
The FBI’s investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, was wrapped into Mueller’s inquiry after he was appointed special counsel in May 2017. His team concluded that Russia interfered in 2016 in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Also released on Friday was a document showing typed notes from now-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok harshly criticizing a February 2017 New York Times report citing sources who said Trump campaign aides had contacts with Russian intelligence officials in the year before the 2016 election.
Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, told Newsmax TV this week there are still secret documents with “red flags” casting doubt early on about the idea of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia and the veracity of Steele’s research, which was funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
A former senior intelligence official with knowledge of the situation told the Washington Examiner that the records made public by Graham on Friday were only some of the classified records alluded to by the former acting spy chief. This person also said Grenell had started the declassification process for the other documents, but it wasn’t guaranteed that those other records would be made public.
