Grassley Demands DOJ and FBI Turn Over All Info on Flynn
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The chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding that the Department of Justice and FBI adhere to requests made over a year ago and turn over all documentation associated with the bureau’s investigation into former National Security Advisor Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Flynn, who plead guilty to one count of lying to the FBI, despite evidence and admissions from senior FBI officials that he did not lie. Moreover, the letter reveals, for the first time, the name of the second FBI agent who interviewed Flynn at the White House regarding his conversation with the former Russian Ambassador.
Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter to Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray Friday requesting a slew of documentation pertaining to Flynn’s case. He noted that on Feb. 15, 2017, a bipartisan group of members from his committee had requested a copy of the intercepted classified phone transcript between Flynn and former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and due to an ongoing investigation the DOJ and FBI denied the committee’s request. Flynn was fired by President Trump in February 2017 for apparently not being forthright with Vice President Mike Pence about his conversation with Kislyak.
Grassley stated in Friday’s letter that at the time the committee requested the documentation on Flynn, “the Justice Department declined to provide any of that information, and instead, then-FBI Director (James) Comey provided a wide-ranging briefing to us on March 15, 2017, that touched on the Flynn issues.”
“The Department has withheld the Flynn-related documents since our initial bipartisan request last year, citing an ongoing criminal investigation,” Grassley stated. “With Flynn’s plea, the investigation appears concluded.”
Because of the developments in the Flynn case, the committee is demanding that the documents be turned over by the DOJ and Wray by May 25th. The lawmakers also requested that the transcripts of the reportedly intercepted calls between Flynn and Kislyak “and any FBI reports summarizing them” be included in the request. Part of the request includes the FBI agents’ 302s, which are the interview summaries with Flynn and supporting documentation, including the agents’ notes from the date they interviewed Flynn.
Last year, this reporter revealed that one of the agents who interviewed Flynn is now embattled FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, whose paramour FBI Attorney Lisa Page has recently resigned from the bureau. Over the last year, evidence collected by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed the pairs extraordinary bias against the Trump campaign and possible interference by them in the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between the campaign and Russia.
Grassley requested that FBI Special Agent Joe Pientka, who was with Strzok during his White House interview on Jan. 24, 2017, be made available “for a transcribed interview with Committee staff no later than one week following the production of the requested documents.”
The committee also had a “non-partisan law enforcement officer who was present,” during the interview with Flynn Grassley revealed in the letter.
“The agent was on detail to the Committee staff at the time,” Grassley stated. “According to that agent’s contemporaneous notes, Director Comey specifically told us during that briefing that the FBI agents who interviewed Lt. General Michael Flynn, “saw nothing that led them to believe [he was] lying.” Our own Committee staff’s notes indicate that Mr. Comey said the “agents saw no change in his demeanor or tone that would say he was being untruthful.”
According to numerous law enforcement officials I’ve spoken to over the past year, neither Strzok or Pientka believed Flynn was lying during their interview with him, as reported.