Lindsey Graham
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged Attorney General Bill Barr to declassify pertinent documents related to the FISA abuse investigation.
In a letter sent to AG Barr, Senator Graham listed 9 categories of classified documents that he would like to be made available to the public.
The 2-page letter addressed to Bill Barr, dated August 29th, was released on Tuesday afternoon.
“Since March 28, 2018, the Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, has been conducting an investigation into the Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable Department and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) related to Carter Page. According to Inspector General David Horowitz that investigation is nearing completion,” Graham wrote.
“In order for the Inspector General to be able to present the most complete results of his investigation to Congress and the American people, certain documents will need to be declassified and released to the public. I write to urge you to declassify all documents the Inspector General identifies as appropriate for declassification as much as possible, without harming national security,” he added.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to release his report on FISA abuse any time between mid-September and early October according to reports.
The nine categories described by Graham:
- All documents and communications originally shared with the Gang of Eight in May 2018 related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including any transcripts or summaries of transcripts of conversations between George Papadopoulos and confidential informants.
- The applications for FISA warrants, and any renewals thereof, for Carter Page or anyone else associated with the Trump campaign.
- The letter from the Department to the FISC filed pursuant to Rule 13(a) of the FISC’s Rules of Procedure.
- Any opinions from the FISC related to the Carter Page FISA or other Trump campaign related FISAs.
- The chart that shows the FBI’s attempts to verify the allegations in the Steele dossier.
- Any FBI or Department documents or communications discussing Christopher Steele’s credibility and/or biases or the FBI or the Department’s knowledge of Steele’s contacts with members of the media.
- FD-302s or other interview summaries related to anyone at FBI or the Department who interacted or accepted documents or communications from Christopher Steele, Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS, Michael Sussman, Perkins Coie, or the Democratic National Committee (DNC) or anyone associated with the DNC.
- The FBI’s confidential human source reports and related documents and communications for Christopher Steele.
- Documents and communications related to the defensive briefings given to both the Clinton and Trump campaigns.
Republican lawmakers such as Rep. Ratcliffe have implied that there is exculpatory evidence in the Papadopoulos transcripts of conversations he had with FBI informants during the 2016 election.
According to reports released by award-winning investigative journalist John Solomon, the FBI hid exculpatory evidence from the FISA court when they obtained spy warrants on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.
Also according to the FISA memo released by ranking member of the House Intelligence panel Devin Nunes, the FBI used the phony, Hillary-funded Russia dossier in order to obtain FISA warrants on Carter Page.
Read Lindsey Graham’s full letter here.
