WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today called on the Deputy Attorney General to begin more closely supervising and reviewing the handling of politically charged and high-profile investigations and to respond to questions the FBI has thus far refused to answer.
In his letter to the recently-confirmed Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, Grassley reiterated concerns about FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement in high-profile and controversial FBI investigations in light of potential political conflicts of interest stemming from his wife’s receipt of nearly $700,000 from close Clinton associates during her campaign for political office in Virginia.
The FBI Ethics and Integrity Program Guide notes that employees should not be involved in investigations if the appearance of personal or political impartiality might affect the public perception of the investigation.
“The FBI and Department of Justice cannot expect to maintain the public's trust when there are so many outstanding questions and apparent conflicts of interest in consequential investigations. The American people need and deserve a better accounting of how investigations are conducted and whether politics have affected an inquiry. The FBI has yet to adequately explain the steps taken to fix these issues since I first raised concerns over six months ago. It's time they were addressed,” Grassley said.
McCabe is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General for failing to recuse himself from the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and mishandling of classified information. It is unclear whether he may have participated in the reported investigation into Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s potential violation of federal campaign laws, if it remained active after the election. In addition, he remains involved in the investigation into the alleged collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential election, and into the subsequent leaks of classified information related to the Russia controversy. Further, the FBI’s recusal protocols seemingly gave McCabe the authority to approve his own recusal with respect to Virginia-related investigations before the election.
After three previous letters over a period of 6 months, the FBI has failed to adequately respond to these and other concerns raised by Grassley. The FBI has also failed to publicly respond to questions about reports suggesting the FBI agreed to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between Trump associates and Russia.
With such a cloud of doubt and questions looming over these investigations, Grassley has asked the Deputy Attorney General to outline the steps he will take to ensure that the Russia collusion investigation is not tainted with political bias, that any leaks of classified information related to that investigations are fully and impartially investigated, and that the reported investigation related to Governor McAuliffe is impartially administered given Deputy Director McCabe’s lack of recusal.
Full text of Grassley’s letter
