saraacarter.com Exclusive: Graham Says Russia Probe Documents Must Be Disclosed To The American People
Jennie Taer -
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said his goal is to ensure that the evidence pertaining to the origination of the FBI’s probe into President Trump’s campaign be made public to the America people. He said the information includes the highly classified documents President Trump has turned over to Attorney General William Barr for declassification.
In an exclusive interview with SaraACarter.com Graham said it is imperative that the Justice Department continue its investigation into the origin of the bureau’s activities at the beginning of its investigation. There are also questions as whether or not the probe into the Trump campaign began prior to its official Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which officially began at the end of July, 2016.
“The American people need to know, not from cable TV but from the documents themselves what actually happened,” Graham said. “I’m not going to jeopardize sources and methods but let me tell you that’s not a concern here.”
“Here’s what I am hoping and pushing for – when it comes to the warrant application, when it comes to the counterintelligence investigation, that we release as much information as possible to tell the story,” Graham added.
In May, Trump gave AG Barr “full and complete authority” to declassify information related to the inquiry now in the hands of the justice department. Barr recently appointed John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut with extensive knowledge of intelligence community, to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of the probe.
“William Barr went above and beyond everybody’s expectations in releasing the (Robert) Mueller report – the only thing that wasn’t released is grand jury material and very limited classified information,” said Graham. “Ninety-nine percent plus of the Mueller report was released – so people could see the good, the bad and the ugly.”
The documents Trump referred to Barr contain the so-called Gang of Eight folder, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page, exculpatory evidence and email exchanges between DOJ and FBI that prove information was withheld from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Ranking Republican of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, R-CA, said the email exchanges are significant because they “clearly show that they knew about information that should have been presented to the FISA court,” he said in an earlier interview with Fox News.
Currently the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is conducting his own investigation into potential misconduct in the issuance of the warrants. That review is ongoing and according to numerous congressional sources his report has been delayed due to the fact that he is collecting more information daily on the events that transpired in 2016.
Graham stressed the now declassified documents Barr has the authority to release to the public will not violate national security or reveal sources or methods.
He said the information pertaining to former Trump campaign aide George Papadopolous and Page regarding their exchanges with outed FBI spy Cambridge Professor Stephan Halper do not jeopardize national security.
The information pertaining to “these undercover agents is not jeopardizing national security –the discussion about trying to get the Steele Dossier out into the press is not jeopardizing national security– the 302 interviews of Steele and showing his bias is not going to jeopardize national security – the documents showing the bias of the investigators is not jeopardizing national security.”
“So long story short my goal is for the public to know as much as possible how this Russia investigation started and how the FISA warrant was obtained,” he added.
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