After House GOP Memo, FBI OKs Release of Unclassified Steele Referral
WASHINGTON – The Federal
Bureau of Investigation signed off on an unclassified
version of the criminal referral by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Chuck Grassley and Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham
only after the White House declassified a House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI)
Majority memo largely based on the same underlying documents. Grassley is now
calling on the FBI to update the classification of the referral to allow
complete disclosure of important context from the documents on which it is
based.
“Seeking transparency and cooperation should not be this challenging. The government should not be blotting out information that it admits isn’t secret, and it should not take dramatic steps by Congress and the White House to get answers that the American people are demanding. There are still many questions that can only be answered by complete transparency. That means declassifying as much of the underlying documents as possible,” Grassley said.
On
January 4, Grassley and Graham referred
Christopher Steele,
the author of an unverified “Trump dossier,” to the FBI for further
investigation after reviewing Justice Department documents that conflicted with
Steele’s sworn statements in British court about the distribution of his
research. At the time of the referral, the existence of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications described in the
HPSCI memo was still classified. Grassley had sought the FBI’s cooperation to
confirm that portions of the referral derived from sources other than the
applications were unclassified. Following weeks of consultation, the
FBI asked the committee to redact additional material despite confirming
that it was, in fact, not classified, and only approved the release of the
unclassified, heavily-redacted version of the referral after the White House
formally declassified the House memo.
While
the HPSCI Majority memo is no longer classified, the underlying text of the
FISA applications that it references is still controlled by the Executive
Branch. The Grassley-Graham referral contains verbatim quotes from the FISA
applications that are not included in the HPSCI memo. Specifically, the
referral quotes the government’s description of Steele’s statements to the FBI
about his contacts with the media. Those quotes remain redacted in the version
currently approved for public release. Friday evening, Grassley
formally requested the FBI to update the classification of the referral and
remove the extensive redactions to allow a more complete understanding and
better inform the public debate. That letter follows:
February 2,
2018
VIA
ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The
Honorable Christopher A. Wray
Director
Federal
Bureau of Investigation
935
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington,
DC 20535
The
Honorable Rod J. Rosenstein
Deputy
Attorney General
U.S.
Department of Justice
950
Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington,
D.C. 20530
Dear
Director Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein:
Pursuant
to Section 3.5 of Executive Order 13526, I am writing to formally demand a
Mandatory Declassification Review of the classified criminal referral Chairman
Graham and I sent to the FBI and Justice Department regarding Christopher
Steele’s potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.[1]
On
January 4, 2018, Senator Graham and I sent a classified memo to the Justice
Department and the FBI. The eight-page memo referred for further investigation
materially inconsistent statements reportedly made by Christopher Steele, the
author of the anti-Trump dossier funded by the Democratic National Committee
and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 Presidential election. On January 19,
2018, an FBI Congressional liaison, Greg Brower, sent a letter claiming that a
few of the paragraphs marked as unclassified in our memo contained classified
information. A redacted copy of Mr. Brower’s letter is attached for reference.
As
I explained in a speech on the Senate floor, the FBI’s claims mischaracterize
and misstate what those paragraphs actually say. Nonetheless, on January 29, I
wrote to Director Wray and Inspector General Horowitz, raising my objections to
the FBI’s classification claims, but attaching a further redacted version of
the referral that addressed FBI’s concerns. On February 2, 2018, Mr. Brower
stated that the FBI had no concerns with the public release of that further
redacted version, which is attached to this letter.
Today,
the President formally declassified a memorandum drafted by the majority staff
of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).[2] Much of the information
in the declassified HPSCI memorandum overlaps with the information in the
criminal referral made by Senator Graham and me. That information has now been
declassified and can no longer properly be deemed as classified in our criminal
referral. Accordingly, I ask that you immediately review the classified
referral in light of today’s declassification and provide a declassified
version of it to the Committee with the declassified version by no later than
February 6, 2018.
Thank
you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please contact Patrick Davis of
my staff at (202) 224-5225 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Charles
E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee
on the Judiciary
Enclosures:
As stated.
cc:
The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz
Inspector General
United States Department of Justice
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
Director, Office of Information Policy
United States Department of Justice
1425 New York Ave, NW
Suite 11050
Washington, DC 20530
-30-
