WASHINGTON DC (October 18, 2019) — Senators Charles "Chuck" Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), respective chairmen of the Finance Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are seeking details on the FBI’s procedures to brief presidential campaigns about potential threats. The FBI confirmed last year that it provided counterintelligence defensive-briefings to several candidates in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, but it also acknowledged that it doesn’t have a specific policy governing when those briefings should be provided.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sens Grassley and Johnson are seeking details on how the FBI conducts such briefings and what policies are in place to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all campaigns. They also question whether policies are in place to prevent briefings from being used to surreptitiously gather information on the briefing recipients.
In 2017, Sen Grassley sought confirmation on any efforts by the FBI to warn then-candidate Trump or his campaign staff of potential foreign influence and counterintelligence concerns. Such briefings are commonly provided to allow unwitting organizations and individuals to take defensive actions to protect themselves from threats. Though the FBI confirmed that it provided briefings to multiple candidates, it did not provide details on whether or how those briefings were specifically tailored for those campaigns and the specific threats they may have faced.
It was later confirmed that, at the time of those briefings, the FBI was actively investigating now-debunked allegations of collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia. Text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa page also suggest that the FBI was using regular intelligence briefings with the Trump transition team as covert information gathering operations.
“The Department of Homeland Security has made clear that ‘[a] secure and resilient electoral process is a vital national interest.’ An essential part of that process is ensuring that all candidates for office are treated fairly and are fully and equally prepared to address any potential security and counterintelligence concerns,” the sens wrote to Wray. “The apparent absence of any policy, procedure, or practice for conducting defensive briefings undermines that process by risking the appearance of bias or, at worst, causing actual prejudice to a candidate for office.”
Full text of Sens Grassley and Johnson’s letter to Wray enclosed.
