Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wants the FBI to answer his questions about former FBI Director James Comey and his use of private email.
The Iowa Republican’s questions come after the Justice Department inspector general released report revealing Comey used a Gmail account in “numerous instances,” even though the Justice Department issued policy in 2016 preventing that practice.
The IG also found that Peter Strzok, a key investigator on both the Hillary Clinton email case and the Russia investigation, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, also used personal email accounts.
“It is disturbing that FBI employees tasked with investigating Secretary Clinton, including the former Director, appear to have engaged in strikingly similar conduct,” Grassley wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Although it does not appear as egregious and prolonged, they also used non-government systems for official work.”
“In the FBI’s response to the Inspector General’s report, it claims, ‘there is no finding or indication that any classified material ever transited former Director Comey’s, Ms. Page’s, or Mr. Strzok’s personal devices or accounts.’ However, unless the FBI has obtained and examined those records, then it simply cannot know one way or the other,” Grassley wrote.
Grassley gave Wray a June 29 deadline to answer whether the FBI has requested that Comey turn over work-related material from his personal emails and devices.
Grassley also asked if the FBI has done anything to handle “spills of classified information” resulting from Comey’s transfer of his so-called “Comey Memos.”
“Has the FBI conducted or attempted to conduct searches of non-FBI-issued communications devices or non-FBI email accounts associated with former Director Comey for official work-related material?If not, why not?” Grassley asks.
Wray testified Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as did the author of the IG report Michael Horowitz.
