WASHINGTON DC (July 23, 2019) — Prepared floor remarks by Senator Charles "Chuck" Grassley on Consistent Oversight:

 

On April 8, 2019, I came to the floor to speak about the end of the Special Counsel’s investigation.

Now that Special Counsel [Robert] Mueller is set to testify tomorrow, I’d like to reiterate several points I made in that speech that I believe are still relevant today.

I noted that the facts show that the real collusion was actually with the Democrats.

It was the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee that hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research against candidate Trump.

Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British Intelligence Officer, to compile the “Steele Dossier.”

That document was central to the fake collusion narrative, and it reportedly used Russian government sources for information.

So, the Democrats paid for a document created by a foreign national that relied on Russian government sources.

Let’s also not forget about news reports that the DNC interfaced with the government of Ukraine to try and get dirt on candidate Trump.

Not Trump. The Democrats. That’s the definition of collusion.

Maybe that’s why the Democrats seem totally uninterested in figuring out the origins of the Russia investigation — they were a prime mover in making it happen.

Now, they’ve asked the Justice Department to produce the Mueller report’s underlying evidence, including all intelligence-related information.

I agree with the need to see as much information as possible. In fact, I’ve cosponsored a bill that would do just that.

But, the Democrats’ fury over Mueller’s findings and their inconsistent positions makes me think all of this is more about politics than principle.

As I’ve said repeatedly, to guard against political gamesmanship, there’s only one legitimate way to do this: let’s see all the documents.

Meaning, that if Congress is going to review the Mueller report’s underlying information, it should be able to review information relating to how the Russia investigation started.

Anything less will fail to provide the full picture.

Furthermore, to be consistent, we shouldn’t stop at the Russia investigation.

The Democrats want all the Mueller information but are turning a blind eye to other investigations where Congress, and the public, have yet to see it all.

Again, that leads me to believe their request for Mueller-related documents is a political ploy.

Take, for example, the Clinton investigation.

As I’ve written about publicly before, the Justice Department Inspector General produced to Congress a highly-classified document relating to the Clinton investigation.

That document raises additional questions for the FBI and Justice Department. These agencies ought to produce additional information to Congress and answer these questions to provide a full accounting of what transpired.

Here’s an excerpt from the Inspector General’s unclassified report on the Clinton investigation:

“Although the Midyear team [that’s the code word for the Clinton investigation] drafted a memorandum to the Deputy Attorney General in late May 2016 stating that review of the highly classified materials was necessary to complete the investigation and requesting permission to access them, the FBI never sent this request to the Department.”

So, this tells us four things:

The FBI apparently was aware of highly-classified information potentially relevant to the Clinton investigation in its possession.

The FBI drafted a memo in May of 2016 to get access to the information.

That memo said review of the information was necessary to complete the investigation.

That memo was never sent.

How could the Obama administration’s FBI finish the investigation if they never got access to all potentially relevant information?

Where’s the Democrat outrage at that apparent failure?

Will Democrats ask the Justice Department for all the underlying information relating to the Hillary Clinton investigation?

As one more example, what about Uranium One?

I’ve been pushing for years for more answers about this transaction that allowed the Russian government to acquire US uranium assets.

I’ve received classified and unclassified briefings about it.

My staff recently went to FBI headquarters to review additional classified material.

And I’ve identified some FBI intelligence reports that may shed more light on the transaction.

However, the Attorney General has refused to provide access to those other documents.

Well, if the Democrats demand intelligence-related information from the Justice Department regarding the Mueller report, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t do the same for Uranium One.

Here’s what the American people expect: consistency.

If you aren’t consistent with what you ask for, then you won’t have any credibility.

My attitude and approach is straightforward and nonpartisan.

Let’s see it all. Russia, Clinton, Uranium One. All of it.

As I said on April 8: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

As we listen to and watch tomorrow’s testimony, let’s keep that in mind.

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