Grassley Discusses Trump Tower Interview Transcripts at Judiciary Committee Markup

 

Good morning. Today should be a short meeting, assuming we get the appropriate numbers to move on the agenda. We have four judicial nominees on the agenda for the first time and the minority has asked that they be held over. We also have to approve new Subcommittee memberships.

 

The following nominees will be held over:

-          Kurt Engelhardt, 5^th Circuit

-          Barry Ashe, Eastern District of Louisiana

-          Howard Nielson, District of Utah

-          James Sweeney, Southern District of Indiana

 

Before I turn to Senator Feinstein, I want to turn to another matter.

 

I have said all along that I favor as much transparency as possible in our investigations - but at the appropriate time, so we don’t undermine our work.

 

I had hoped to speak with all the witnesses surrounding the Trump Tower meeting before releasing any of those interview transcripts. But the Ranking Member unilaterally released the transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. That has spooked other potential witnesses.

 

As a result, it looks like our chances of getting a voluntary interview with Mr. Kushner have been shot. He has already provided his account to the Intelligence Committee.

 

Senator Feinstein has access to the transcript as a member of that Committee, and I hope to be able to arrange to review it as well, as I have done with their interview of Mr. Manafort.

 

Therefore, I believe this Committee’s interviews of the witnesses surrounding the Trump Tower meeting are complete. That section of our investigation is done. So, now it’s time to start officially releasing the transcripts of all witness interviews we have done related to that meeting.

 

Let’s get them out there for everyone to see.

 

That can hopefully be done through agreement with the Ranking Member, but if not, possibly through a Committee vote. I’d like to work on getting that done as soon as possible.

 

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