A government ethics group on Monday sued the Justice Department and the FBI for information it has on its investigation into leaks to Rudy Giuliani during the 2016 campaign.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed suit in federal court Monday for records dealing with the FBI’s probe into how Giuliani, a vocal Trump surrogate in 2016, was told that then-FBI Director James Comey had reopened an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s private email server use. Giuliani shared what he knew during a Fox News appearance in October 2016 two days before Comey made the decision public.
CREW sought information from the agencies in April 2018 to “shed light on whether FBI agents and employees violated federal law,” but had yet to receive anything, according to court documents filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
CREW wrote that the documents were of public interest given Giuliani’s position as President Trump’s personal lawyer and amid special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. It also suggested Giuiliani’s ability to obtain advance notice of the email probe may “pose a conflict” if he becomes a witness in Mueller’s inquiry.
“The FBI legally has to give us these records or explain why they cannot,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a press release Monday of his group’s lawsuit. “The American people should have the information they need to evaluate whether there was wrongdoing before the presidential election. The FBI must live up to its legal obligations.”
The leak to Giuliani has resurfaced after Comey told the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees last week he was “concerned that there appeared to be in the media a number of stories that might have been based on communications reporters or non-reporters like Rudy Giuliani were having with people in the New York field office.” Giuliani previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which works closely with FBI’s field office in the city.
