Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday said that the committee would hold a hearing on the Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into fired deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe after the inspector general releases the report.
“Both Democrats and Republicans asked the non-partisan, independent Inspector General appointed by President Obama to look into a whole range go issues involving the FBI’s involvement in controversial cases related to the 2016 presidential campaign,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). “We are all eager to see the results of that review, and you can be certain that this Committee will hold hearings on that report’s findings once they become available.”
“As many on both sides of the aisle have said in the wake of the removal of the former Deputy Director, we need to see what the evidence shows before making any final judgments,” Grassley continued, adding that he’ll request documents on the decision to fire McCabe.
Grassley wrote the letter in response to a January letter from Leahy released on Saturday urging Grassley to hold hearings on the politicization of the FBI. Leahy asked for Grassley to bring in McCabe and current FBI director Christopher Wray.
“I believe the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as an institution – and as our nation’s premier law enforcement agency – is under attack,” Leahy wrote in his letter. “During my four decades in the Senate, I have never before seen career, apolitical law enforcement officials so relentlessly and publicly maligned by our own government.”
In his response, Grassley wrote that he is also “deeply concerned about politicization of the FBI,” but he focused on actions taken by the FBI before the 2016 election. The Judiciary chairman mentioned the Democratic campaign of McCabe’s wife, the text messages between two FBI officials during the 2016 election, and Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department officials whose wife worked for the firm that funded the so-called Trump dossier, Fusion GPS.
Read Grassley’s letter:
