WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined “Saturday Agenda” with Rob Astorino on Newsmax to discuss his successful efforts to declassify and release the previously Classified Appendix (“Durham annex”) to John Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report.
The Durham annex exposed a reported Hillary Clinton campaign plan to falsely connect President Donald Trump to Russia, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) failure to fully investigate intelligence suggesting the Clinton campaign fabricated the Russia collusion hoax.
Video and excerpts of Grassley’s remarks follow:
On political weaponization against President Trump and the Russia hoax:
“It was an effort to stop Trump's first campaign. When that didn't stop it, it was an effort to ruin his presidency or get him out of office before the first four years were up, and then afterwards, like Jack Smith was trying to do, to put him in prison and all that stuff. It's all anti-Trump, and he's lived through it all and won an outstanding election, putting up with all that stuff …
“They were building a case within the FBI that didn't have any basis, through an Assistant Special Agent by the name of Thibault, to build a case so that Jack Smith would have something to try and [so that] there was a reason to try it. And it was based upon just made-up information. So, it's all Russia, Russia, Russia for the last 10 years, you can say. And it's a terrible thing.”
On the newly declassified Durham annex:
“The Durham annex, which was found by the FBI in a burn bag in a secret room that Patel didn't know anything about until he got to the FBI directorship… So, let's just simply say that there was conspiracy way back then, in ‘15-‘16, between Clinton, between George Soros and between the DNC to find a narrative to ruin Trump. And thank God that didn't happen.
“And it also has this element of it, that the FBI knew about it and didn't do anything about it. And that's what's exposed in this Durham annex …
“It's all an effort, and it continued from not beating him in the campaign to his first presidency… They tried to ruin him politically. They tried to ruin him professionally. They tried to ruin him economically and… all adding up to a political ruination. Didn't happen.”
On seeking justice and accountability:
“The next step is in addition to what Pam Bondi and FBI Director Patel did to declassify all this stuff, so [that] I can talk to you now about it. They're in charge of seeing whether or not crime has been committed and whether or not there needs to be prosecution. And, of course, it will be up to a judge and jury to see if there's any punishment.
“I would imagine a lot of these people are hiring lawyers now here in this town and trying to protect themselves. And you saw Clapper and Brennan have an op-ed in the New York Times this week where they were trying to cover their rear end in this whole process. And so, don't you see that there's a lot of people in this town that are probably pretty afraid? And they ought to be afraid.”
“The public's business ought to be public, and transparency brings accountability. And then in turn, we want to make sure that the FBI that will not be weaponized against a president of the United States — whether it's Trump or somebody else. In this case, it was Trump — that that never happens again, because the FBI should not have a political element in it.
“They should only be investigating crime and protecting the people of this country. They shouldn't be trying to help some other political party stop somebody from being president or ruining their presidency.”
On the classified Durham annex being discovered inside burn bags at the FBI:
“If people want to know why we're talking about this history, we just got the information that backs up what we've been suspicious of for the last 10 years, and now this fills in a lot of blanks. And, when this information is in a burn bag in a secret room in the FBI, then you know that there's a big attempt to cover up.
“And the public's business ought to be public. And we got to stop this covering up, and we got to stop the weaponization of the FBI against political opponents.”
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