Key allies of President Donald Trump on the House Judiciary Committee, Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have asked the Justice Department to hand over all unrevised drafts of the inspector general report that was released Thursday, amid concerns that “people may have changed the report in a way that obfuscates your findings.”
The letter to DOJ IG Michael Horowitz argues that lawmakers should have the opportunity to review the drafts because members of the Justice Department reviewed the report before it was made public and were allowed to respond or dispute any of the allegations made against them.
“We are concerned that during this time, people may have changed the report in a way that obfuscates your findings,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, over the past year, the DOJ has repeatedly fought requests by Congress to produce documents related to this investigation, and when the DOJ actually provided documents, the materials have been heavily redacted. Past and present DOJ officials have asserted security concerns, even though the documents we have seen do not legitimately contain these issues.”
The lawmakers are referencing Republican lawmakers efforts to obtain documents from the Justice Department about the launch of the Russia probe, pointing to the FBI’s deployment of a government informant to meet with Trump campaign officials as evidence of a “deep state” bias against Trump within the agency. The Justice Department was attempting to protect the identity of an agent by sharing redacted material, but eventually opted to meet with a small group of lawmakers to discuss the classified information.
In the letter, the lawmakers said they have every reason to believe the IG report — which detailed the FBI’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails — is “thorough and accurate,” but asserted that “the trust of the American people depends on it.”
The more than 500-page report released Thursday divulged, among many things, that while former FBI director James Comey’s actions in the reopening of the Clinton probe did not follow typical FBI protocol, he was not politically motivated.
H/t: The Washington Post
