GOP Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are turning up the heat on their investigation into now-debunked allegations that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia during his 2016 campaign.
The senators fired off a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Tuesday, demanding the release of unredacted records connected to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI investigation that Johnson and Grassley aim to prove was corrupt from the get-go.
The letter, obtained by the Daily Mail, referred to 460 pages of “heavily redacted records” received by Citizens United, a conservative non-profit, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
CU is fighting for transparency & accountability at DOJ. pic.twitter.com/sLpVI4F720
— Citizens United (@Citizens_United) April 25, 2023
IG Horowitz produced the records as a “partial response” to Citizens United’s request for interview transcripts.
“Due to massive redactions applied to the interview transcripts by a number of agencies, including the DOJ OIG, these records are impossible to review,” the senators told Horowitz. “We write to request the unredacted version of those records.”
Of specific interest are the notes and transcribed interviews with Kathleen Kavalec, Lisa Page, Loretta Lynch, and Nellie Ohr — all key players in the Crossfire Hurricane probe.
The senators also want to know how many of the 170 interviews conducted by the DOJ OIG with more than 100 witnesses were transcribed, and if some interviews were conducted but not transcribed, they want an explanation.
Finally, Johnson and Grassley want to know if “Special Counsel John Durham requested records or transcripts from the DOJ OIG” and, if so, “has the DOJ OIG complied with Mr. Durham’s requests?”
“The records contained in the DOJ OIG’s February 3, 2023, FOIA production to Citizens United directly relate to our ongoing efforts to expose corruption within the FBI,” the letter states. “It is also our job to oversee OIGs to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of operations.”
To that end, the senators gave Horowitz a deadline of May 9 to fork over the requested information.
The documents request comes on the heels of damning claims from former CIA Director Mike Morell, who testified under oath in front of the House Judiciary Committee that he orchestrated the now-famous letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials calling the Hunter Biden laptop story Russian disinformation.
The letter, circulated just before voters were to head for the polls, was nothing more than an intentional effort by President Joe Biden’s then-campaign manager, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to interfere in the 2020 election, Johnson told John Catsimatidis on a recent episode of the “Cats Roundtable.”
Ron Johnson: Intel letter on Hunter’s laptop worse than ‘anything China or Russia’ could do https://t.co/QxG7SxSx1S pic.twitter.com/fKvUj2BoNk
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) April 26, 2023
“Actually, they knew the Hunter Biden laptop was real,” Johnson said. “The FBI knew that. They had possession of it in December 2019.”
“They wrote a letter to interfere in our election to a far greater extent than anything China or Russia ever could hope to do — claiming that the laptop had all the earmarks of … a Russian information campaign,” he continued. “That letter was an information campaign. It had far greater impact on our election than anything any foreign adversary could ever undertake. … This isn’t suspect anymore. This is fact!”
“The truth is slowly starting to be pried out,” Johnson said. “Bit by bit. Piece by piece.”
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