Two top Senate Republicans drastically expanded the scope of their inquiry into the Russia investigation, sending letters asking for information from the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, told key Trump administration officials in separate letters, first obtained by Just The News, that their committees “are investigating matters related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation” and noted that they had requests for records related to a host of Trump-Russia figures and controversies.
Grassley and Johnson, along with Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, have played key roles in bringing a host of formerly classified Trump-Russia investigation records to light over the past few months.
They asked Attorney General William Barr for all records tying former DOJ counterintelligence official David Laufman to Igor Danchenko, who was recently revealed to be the U.S.-based primary subsource for British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier and who undercut the credibility of the dossier’s Trump-Russia allegations. The senators also asked for all of Laufman’s records related to Foreign Agents Registration Act cases named in special counsel Robert Mueller’s scope memos and access to all records related to Andrew Weissmann, a top prosecutor on Mueller’s team, and an April 11, 2017, meeting he held with reporters.
The Republicans told FBI Director Christopher Wray they want access to all records related to former State Department official and ex-Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott or any other Brookings employee in communications with any FBI official about Steele or Donald Trump’s campaign. The left-leaning think tank is under increased scrutiny about its alleged role in the dossier’s dissemination.
The senators seek records tied to FBI informant Stefan Halper and his role in targeting people in the Trump orbit. They also asked for all records of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s work related to former Trump campaign associate Carter Page’s relationship with the CIA. Page had been a source for the agency, but the DOJ inspector general found Clinesmith altered a document to assert falsely that he was not a CIA source in order to help with the approval of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant. Clinesmith is believed to be under criminal investigation.
Grassley and Johnson asked for all records of meetings and discussions between Fusion GPS employees or its co-founder Glenn Simpson and anyone in the U.S. government as well as all FBI records on Belarus-born U.S. businessman Sergei Millian.
The senators also want DOJ official Bruce Ohr’s notes and all records of his meetings with FBI officials related to Crossfire Hurricane, all of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s interviews with the FBI, anything written by fired FBI Director James Comey or fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe related to the investigation, and any documentation of former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussing invoking the 25th Amendment or suggesting wearing a wire against Trump.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s lengthy December report, which criticized the DOJ and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, warrants against Page and for the bureau’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s flawed and Democrat-funded dossier. Declassified footnotes now show that the FBI was aware that Steele’s dossier might have been compromised by Russian disinformation.
The two senators are seeking a host of documents from CIA Director Gina Haspel, including all of the CIA’s records on Steele and Crossfire Hurricane, as well as details on whether foreign governments such as Australia, Israel, or the United Kingdom provided any assistance during the Trump-Russia investigation. The senators also asked for records tied to former CIA Director John Brennan’s involvement during the investigation, any CIA contacts with Perkins Coie lawyers Michael Sussman or Marc Elias, and any CIA records on Page, Halper, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, or mysterious Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud.
The duo asked for access to the then-Republican-led House Intelligence Committee’s investigative referral to the CIA based on its review of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The senators also asked Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe for the full House Intelligence Committee report, as well as for all intelligence given to the Crossfire Hurricane team and all unmasking requests related to any Trump associates.
Grassley and Johnson asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for all records related to Steele’s contact with any State Department officials, anything related to the Brookings Institution and Steele, and all records tied to Clinton insiders Sidney Blumenthal or Cody Shearer. It was Shearer who put together anti-Trump research in 2016 that was passed along to government officials with Blumenthal’s help.
Mueller’s report, released in April 2019, said that Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.” U.S. Attorney John Durham is conducting an independent investigation into the origins and conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation, and a report is expected by the end of summer.
