WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today called on the Justice Department to
provide unredacted copies of text messages between two FBI officials whose
politically-tinged missives called into question their impartiality during
their work on politically sensitive investigations. Reviews of less-redacted
versions of the messages revealed previously-concealed details of excessive
spending, including a $70,000 conference table, raising new questions about the
rationale for the remaining redactions.
“Congress, and the public, have a right to know how the Justice Department
spends taxpayer money. I am unaware of
any legitimate basis on which the cost of a conference table should be
redacted. Embarrassment is not a good
enough reason. The manner in which some
redactions have been used casts doubt on whether the remaining redactions are
necessary and defensible,” Grassley said in a letter today
to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Another
exchange makes reference to the Obama White House “running” an investigation,
though the official’s name was initially redacted and details about the
investigation are still unclear. Grassley
is seeking a fully-unredacted copy of the texts, or at the very least, a redaction
key providing the legal justification for the Department’s continued refusal to
share the requested information with its congressional oversight committee.
May 23, 2018
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The
Honorable Rod J. Rosenstein
Deputy
Attorney General
U.S.
Department of Justice
Dear Deputy
Attorney General Rosenstein,
On May 1,
2018, and May 18, 2018, Committee staff reviewed
in camera less redacted versions of the Strzok and Page text
message productions provided to the Committee.
On several occasions, my staff have requested that the Department of
Justice provide the Committee with a redaction key, to no avail. Thus, the Committee is still in the dark
about the justification the Department is relying upon to withhold that information
from Congress. As one example of
redacted material, in a text message produced to the Committee, the price of
Andrew McCabe’s $70,000 conference table was redacted.
[1] In another, an official’s name was redacted
in reference to a text about the Obama White House “running” an investigation,
although it is unclear to which investigation they were referring.
[2]
In order to
see under the redactions, Committee staff had to travel to main Justice to
review a lesser redacted version. When viewing
the still redacted portions in context with the unredacted material, it
appeared that the redacted portions may contain relevant information relating to
the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the manner in which the Department
of Justice and FBI handled the Clinton and Russia investigations.
[3]
Congress,
and the public, have a right to know how the Department spends taxpayer money. I am unaware of any legitimate basis on which
the cost of a conference table should be redacted. Embarrassment is not a good enough
reason. The manner in which some
redactions have been used casts doubt on whether the remaining redactions are
necessary and defensible.
Accordingly,
please provide unredacted copies of all text messages produced to the Committee
no later than June 6, 2018. Should the
Department continue to refuse to provide fully unredacted copies to Congress,
please provide a privilege log describing the legal basis for withholding that
information from Congress.
I anticipate
that your written reply and most responsive documents will be unclassified.
Please send all unclassified material directly to the Committee. In keeping
with the requirements of Executive Order 13526, if any of the responsive
documents do contain classified information, please segregate all unclassified
material within the classified documents, provide all unclassified information
directly to the Committee, and provide a classified addendum to the Office of
Senate Security. Although the Committee complies with all laws and regulations governing
the handling of classified information, it is not bound, absent its prior
agreement, by any handling restrictions.
Should you
have any questions, please contact Josh Flynn-Brown of my Judiciary Committee
staff at (202) 224-5225.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
-30-
[1] Page: No way to
change the room. The table alone was [70k].
(You can’t repeat that!) No, instead it just means we now have to get a small
conference table for his actual office, so that he can actually have a meeting
that is intimate. DOJ-PROD-0000118. On April 3, 2015, as a result of my inquiring
into the spending practices of the United States Marshals Service, the agency
responded in an unredacted letter that a conference table cost $22,000. Thus, there is no reasonable justification
for redacting the cost of a conference table.
Letter from William Delaney, Chief of Congressional and Public Affairs,
USMS, to Senator Charles Grassley, Chairman.
Sen. Comm. on the Judiciary (April 3, 2015).
[2] Strzok: And hi.
Went well, best we could have expected.
Other than [Liz’s] quote, “the White House is running this.” DOJ-PROD-0000212.
[3] Several
examples: DOJ-PROD-0000109; DOJ-PROD-0000119; DOJ-PROD-0000123;
DOJ-PROD-0000154; DOJ-PROD-0000199; DOJ-PROD-0000199; DOJ-PROD-0000202;
DOJ-PROD-0000204; DOJ-PROD-0000206; DOJ-PROD-0000208; DOJ-PROD-0000210;
DOJ-PROD-0000212; DOJ-PROD-0000219; DOJ-PROD-0000220; DOJ-PROD-0000222; DOJ-PROD-0000226;
DOJ-PROD-0000233; DOJ-PROD-0000258; DOJ-PROD-0000274; DOJ-PROD-0000275; DOJ-PROD-0000276;
DOJ-PROD-0000324.