Tag Archives: Charles Grassley

Senate: Two-Tiered Justice System in FBI Clinton/Trump Investigations, by Sara A. Carter

Posted on June 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

There would have been multiple indictments against Clinton and crew if the FBI had applied the same standards that are being applied by Mueller’s team. From Sara A. Carter at saraacarter.com:

Highlights

  • Had Horowitz not discovered the anti-Trump texts between Strzok and Page, they would still be investigating the Trump campaign
  • IG confirms his office is handling investigation into Comey’s leaking of personal memos to his friend and the New York Times
  • There was a clear breakdown in the FBI culture, with senior agents being wined and dined by reporters

***DEVELOPING STORY***

Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee outlined the stark double standard at Monday’s much anticipated hearing on the FBI’s handling of its investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for government business and the bureau’s highly partisan investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Grassley stated “justice should be blind” but contended that it was not in the case in the FBI’s handling of the Clinton and Trump investigations. He noted that based on the evidence collected in the 568-page report released by Inspector General Michael Horowitz last week, along with information and evidence collected by numerous Congressional committees, evidence of bias against Trump was insurmountable.

Grassley stressed, “most of the time, evidence of political bias is not so explicit. The details in this report confirm what the American people have suspected all along. Hillary Clinton got the kid-glove treatment.”

“I’m not buying that the Clinton email investigation is on the up and up…”

Grassley stressed, “most of the time, evidence of political bias is not so explicit. The details in this report confirm what the American people have suspected all along. Hillary Clinton got the kid-glove treatment.”

“The contrast to the Russia probe is stark,” Grassley stated. “The biggest difference, of course, is the appointment of a Special Counsel. Attorney General (Loretta) Lynch refused to appoint one. The appearance of political influence was inevitable.”

Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray were grilled by lawmakers during the hours-long hearing, which consisted of questioning regarding the use of FBI informants in investigations, the handling of the Clinton investigation, and the extraordinary bias in the FBI by senior special agents in the field.

To continue reading: Senate: Two-Tiered Justice System in FBI Clinton/Trump Investigations

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Grassley Demands Sit-Down With Mystery FBI Agent To Discuss Flynn “302” Forms, by Tyler Durden

Posted on May 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

Slowly, very slowly, we’re getting to the truth about the FBI’s anti-Trump effort. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

  • Last week, an unredacted House Intel Committee report revealed that former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told Congressional investigators that the FBI had virtually no case against former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, and “The two people who interviewed [Flynn] didn’t think he was lying[.]” 
  • “[N]ot [a] great beginning of a false statement case.” McCabe told the Committee.
  • The same House Intel report revealed that James Comey contradicted himself in a Fox News interview when he denied telling lawmakers those agents thought Flynn was telling the truth, when in fact he did.
  • There is an unconfirmed rumor that McCabe instructed agents to alter their “302” forms from the Flynn interview, effectively changing their written accounts.
  • Now, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says Comey also told them the FBI thought Flynn was telling the truth – only to say the opposite on Fox.
  • Grassley is now zeroing in on the Flynn interview – and has demanded the “302” forms, as well as a sit-down with Special Agent Joe Pientka – who Grassley revealed as the second FBI agent in the Flynn interview aside from Peter Strzok. 
  • Grassley is also demanding a transcript of the reportedly intercepted calls between Flynn and former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak central to the Flynn case.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa is getting to the bottom of things, and some think he’s laying out a path to exonerate former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn – who pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI over his contacts with former Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

It has been suggested that the FBI set Flynn up, and his admission of guilt could have been to avoid sure financial ruin trying to fight the Special Counsel. Others say Flynn was protecting his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who served as his father’s aide for his consulting company, Flynn Intel Group.

To continue reading: Grassley Demands Sit-Down With Mystery FBI Agent To Discuss Flynn “302” Forms

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FBI Refuses To Pursue Personal Strzok-Page Texts; Grassley Goes Nuclear, by Tyler Durden

Posted on May 7, 2018 | Leave a comment

Yet another attempt by the FBI to cover up potentially damaging information. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

The FBI is refusing to pursue work-related text messages and emails sent on the personal devices of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page – the FBI “lovebirds” discovered to harbor extreme political bias for Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump while actively involved in cases against each candidate during the 2016 US election. Clinton was of course exonerated by the FBI despite overwhelming evidence of criminal conduct, while Trump’s entire presidency has been tainted by the spectre of unproven Russian collusion.

Over 50,000 text messages between Strzok and Page were discovered by the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), leading to their removal from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation – which has since devolved into trying to embarrass the President over allegedly paying a porn star not to discuss consensual sex. Of note, Page tendered her resignation on Friday.

In a Wednesday letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the FBI was not “obligated” to collect all communications between employees, and would not be pursuing communications Strzok and Page sent to each other on their personal devices.

In response, Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) went nuclear – reminding Wray in a Friday letter cc’d to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that “Although, as your letter notes, the FBI is not “obligated” to collect all communications between employees, it is obligated to collect and preserve federal records.”

Grassley goes on to note that previously released text messages between Strzok and Page “show substantial reason to believe government work was performed on non-government systems during the course of a high-profile investigation,” and that those communications could prove vital to the Committee’s investigation.

The work-related communications on nongovernment systems could shed more light on how the FBI handled the Clinton investigation and would constitute federal records that the FBI would be obligated to retrieve and preserve under the Federal Records Act. –Sen. Grassley to FBI Director Wray

To continue reading: FBI Refuses To Pursue Personal Strzok-Page Texts; Grassley Goes Nuclear

 

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WSJ Columnist: Why is the Media Ignoring the Real Bombshell FISA Memo? by Guy Benson

Posted on February 8, 2018 | Leave a comment

The “real bombshell” memo referred to in the title is the one from the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Charles Grassley. From Guy Benson at theburningplatform.com:

WSJ Columnist: Why is the Media Ignoring the Real Bombshell FISA Memo?

We’ll bring you Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel’s tweetstorm in a moment, but I’ll take a stab at answering her question about the media right out of the gate.  Three possibilities: (1) The GOP hyped the Nunes memo, which quickly became the center of this whole firestorm — replete with counter-memos, FBI objections, etc.  The press followed the spotlight. (2) As we’ve been saying, there are so many complex pieces of this larger puzzle, following the plot is difficult.  It’s not just news consumers wondering, “which memo is this now?” — it’s many of the people trying to cover this drama, too.  The document in question here is a second, less redacted, version of a Senate memo that few people have even heard of. (3) The Senate memo, produced by non-bomb-throwers Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, is substantially more disruptive to the Democrats’ narrative than the Nunes document.  And the press generally prefers Democratic narratives to Republican ones because most journalists are liberals.

My guess is that some blend of all three factors helps explain why the Grassley/Graham memo has barely registered on the national radar, even after we’ve endured multiple high-octane news cycles starring Nunes and Schiff.  But on the substance, does Strassel have a point, or is this just the latest shiny object the right-wing is waving around to distract from “the real story,” now that the Nunes memo was arguably a bit of a dud?  Here’s her case:

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Declassified Grassley Document Confirms FISA Memo’s Explosive Claims, by Tyler Durden

Posted on February 7, 2018 | 1 comment

Now Senate Republicans are chiming in: a declassified memo from the Senate Judiciary Committee supports the House Intelligence Committee’s memo, and has some new allegations as well. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

  • A declassified document from the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms that the FBI “relied heavily” on an unverified dossier in order to obtain FISA surveillance warrants on one-time Trump advisor Carter Page
  • Unredacted portions of the document reveal the FBI’s extensive involvement with the creator of the dossier, former UK spy Christopher Steele
  • Despite Steele lying to the FBI which led to the agency ending their relationship, they still used his unverified memo and vouched for his reputation to obtain the FISA warrants
  • The unredacted memo clarifies that the FBI notified the FISA court of the dossier’s political origins “to a vaguely limited extent”
  • The FBI has withheld the notes from their meetings with Steele
  • Steele received information for an unpublished second dossier from the Obama State Department led by John Kerry at the time
  • Much of the information in this “Grassley Memo” matches with the contents of the “Nunes Memo” released by the House Intelligence Committee last Friday.

A largely unredacted version of a criminal referral made against Fusion GPS operative Christopher Steele reveals several new bombshells, and confirms that the FBI heavily relied on an unverified dossier created by the former UK spy – along with a Yahoo News article which used Steele’s information, to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant on one-time Trump advisor Carter Page.

The previously redacted sections of the document notably covered up the FBI’s extensive working relationship with Steele – who was paid $168,000 to create the dossier used in the FISA applications. The fact that he was considered reliable was used as an argument to the FISA court to make up for the fact that the underlying dossier was unverified.

To continue reading: Declassified Grassley Document Confirms FISA Memo’s Explosive Claims

 

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Grassley Fires Off Scorching Letter To DOJ After Anti-Trump Texts Reveal Burner Phone, “Insurance Policy”, by Tyler Burden

Posted on December 15, 2017 | 1 comment

The Justice Department and FBI have some explaining to do. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley fired off a letter late Wednesday to the DOJ, asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to explain several disturbing revelations contained within anti-Trump text messages sent between FBI investigators Peter Strzok and his FBI-Attorney mistress Lisa Page – both of whom were central to the Clinton email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe, and both of whom were removed from Robert Mueller’s Special counsel when their text messages came to light. Rosenstein appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about Strzok, Page and Mueller’s investigation.


Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein

Rosenstein stood by Robert Mueller’s investigation, telling lawmakers dismayed at a trove of damning text messages that he is “not aware of any impropriety” on the Special Counsel (which is stacked with anti-Trump Democrats, who have reportedly also sent anti-Trump messages), saying “I think it’s important that when we talk about political affiliation… The issue of bias is something different,” adding “We recognize we have employees with political opinions. And it’s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions. And so, I believe that Director Mueller understands that and he is running that office appropriately.”

Grassley raised serious concerns in his letter to the DOJ addressed to Rosenstein, as just two of over 10,000 (!?) text messages referred to an “insurance policy” against a Trump presidency, and a special phone they used “when we talk about hillary because it can’t be traced.”

To continue reading: Grassley Fires Off Scorching Letter To DOJ After Anti-Trump Texts Reveal Burner Phone, “Insurance Policy”

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Standoff brews between Senate, FBI over Trump dossier, by Byron York

Posted on September 3, 2017 | 7 comments

Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Diane Feinstein, it’s ranking Democrat, would like to talk to two high-ranking FBI officials about the now infamous Trump dossier. The FBI and Justice Department are resisting. From Byron York at washingtonexaminer.com:

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, want to interview two high-ranking FBI officials about some key aspects of the bureau’s role in the Trump-Russia investigation — the Trump dossier, the firing of James Comey, and more. But the FBI doesn’t want those officials to talk — even though the Judiciary Committee has oversight responsibility for the FBI, and even though the request is bipartisan, and even though there appears to be no conflict with the ongoing Trump-Russia investigation conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

A standoff could be developing.

It began on July 11, when Grassley and Feinstein wrote letters to James Rybicki, who was Director Comey’s chief of staff, and Carl Ghattas, head of the bureau’s national security branch. “The committee is investigating the removal of FBI Director James Comey, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and allegations of improper interference in law enforcement investigations,” the chairman and ranking member wrote. “Please make yourself available for a transcribed interview during the week of July 24, 2017.”

It didn’t happen. On July 27, Samuel Ramer, the acting assistant attorney general, wrote to say that Rybicki and Ghattas would not be talking. Noting the Mueller investigation, Ramer said, “Under these circumstances and consistent with the department’s long-standing policy regarding the confidentiality and sensitivity of information relating to pending matters, the department cannot make Mr. Ghattas or Mr. Rybicki available for transcribed interviews at this time.”

Grassley and Feinstein did not agree. They knew that committee staff, Republican and Democrat, had had so-called “de-confliction” discussions with Mueller’s office on how the Senate investigation might proceed without interfering with Mueller’s criminal probe. And they didn’t see a conflict. So on August 25, Grassley and Feinstein wrote another letter, this time to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

To continue reading: Standoff brews between Senate, FBI over Trump dossier

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