On
January 19, 2021, then-President Trump issued a memorandum to the Attorney
General, Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
That
memo directed them to declassify certain Crossfire Hurricane records for public
dissemination.
We
all know about the fatal defects and political decisions made during Crossfire
Hurricane.
That
type of improper government conduct demands maximum transparency.
On
February 25, 2021, my staff and Senator Johnson’s staff requested an update
from the Justice Department on what’s been declassified.
We
want to know when a full and complete set of declassified records will be
provided to Congress.
Since
February, our respective staffs have followed up with the Justice Department on
countless emails and phone calls.
Attorney
General Garland has consistently failed to provide any substantive update.
We’re
in December and Attorney General Garland hasn’t produced a single declassified
record to Congress relating to Crossfire Hurricane.
More
importantly, Attorney General Garland has kept the American people in the dark.
Now,
the Justice Department hasn’t claimed that the Durham investigation is a basis
for refusing to provide these records.
So,
what’s the delay about?
Is
Attorney General Garland trying to shield the Justice Department and FBI from
further embarrassment?
The
other week, it was reported that an “Alternative Mueller Report” had been
located at the Justice Department.
Reportedly,
the Justice Department could release it soon.
This
“report” was drafted by Andrew Weissmann’s team while he served on Special
Counsel Mueller’s Trump investigation.
This
is the same Andrew Weissmann who wiped his government phone while working on
that investigation.
Many
of his colleagues did the same thing to over a dozen phones.
These
acts may have deleted federal records that could be key to better understanding
their decision-making process as they pursued their investigation and wrote
their report.
On
September
11, 2020, I wrote to the Justice Department asking about the potential
violation of federal record-keeping laws.
I
also asked what steps the Justice Department had taken to recover the deleted
records.
In
response, the Department failed to answer these questions.
Instead,
it provided a letter from its Inspector General rather than providing a full
and complete answer for itself.
The
Inspector General said that 96 phones were assigned to Mueller’s team but the
Justice Department can’t locate 59 of them.
Initially,
the Justice Department took possession of 79 of 96 phones.
Based
on the information provided to me and Senator Johnson from the Inspector
General, it appears that 74 were reviewed for official record-keeping purposes.
Only
74 out of 96 phones.
Accordingly,
22 of the Mueller team’s phones weren’t reviewed for federal record-keeping
purposes. Who did those phones belong to?
This
is beyond suspicious and the Attorney General doesn’t seem to have a care in
the world.
The
Inspector General told us that there’s a document called the “SCO Inventory and
Property Transfer Document” that would give us a better idea of the federal
record-keeping process during Mueller.
To-date,
Attorney General Garland has failed to produce that document.
So,
what we have here is yet again another example of a complete and total Justice
Department failure.
On
the one hand, the Biden Justice Department has no idea what records should be
declassified pursuant to President Trump’s January 2021 declassification order.
The
Biden Justice Department has failed to tell Congress what, if anything, it’s
done to retrieve the missing Mueller phones.
The
Biden Justice Department has also failed to provide the Mueller team’s existing
text messages and other records.
Yet,
on the other hand, the Justice Department will reportedly soon release an
“Alternative Mueller Report” because a federal court made them do it.
Congress
has an independent constitutional oversight authority that requires the
executive branch to be responsive to oversight requests irrespective of any
federal litigation.
The
obvious message from the Biden Justice Department is that it will stiff-arm
congressional oversight that could prove embarrassing to government bureaucrats.
Our
institutions won’t survive with this way of doing the people’s business.
Transparency
brings accountability and I won’t stop working to hold government officials
accountable for their improper conduct regardless of their political party.
