UPDATE: Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell told Schiff the materials are ready for release. If Schiff does not do it then Grenell will release the materials:
Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has sent a letter to chairman Adam Schiff notifying him that transcripts of all 53 interviews, over 6,000 pages in all, have been cleared for public release. “All of the transcripts, with our required redactions, can be released to the public without any concerns of disclosing classified material,” Grenell wrote to Schiff in a letter dated May 4.
As Ed Morrissey points out, the transcripts and other materials belong to the House Intelligence Committee and not Grenell’s intelligence communities.
House Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees demanded access to “transcripts and other materials” obtained during the investigation into possible Russian investigation in the 2016 presidential election.
The Republicans who signed the letter accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of blocking access to this material.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan wrote the letter to Schiff and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes:
In January 2017, HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] began an investigation into Russian active measures to influence the 2016 Presidential election, including whether individuals associated with the presidential campaigns worked with Russia. In March 2018, after interviewing 73 individuals and reviewing over 300,000 documents, HPSCI issued a report finding that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia. According to public reports, HPSCI voted in September 2018 to release 53 transcripts.We understand now that Chairman Schiff is blocking the release of these transcripts. This news, if accurate, is disturbing—especially in light of Chairman Schiff’s cries in 2019 for transparency regarding allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. For almost four years, prominent Democrat politicians and commentators alleged that President Trump colluded with Russia, with Chairman Schiff going so far as to say that he had “direct evidence” of collusion. Now that these allegations have been disproven by several investigations, the American people deserve to have transparency about why public figures such as Chairman Schiff continued to promote such wild accusations.
Jordan and the twelve Republican signees hope the men will agree to release the transcripts to help with their “ongoing oversight of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The letter comes a day after Jordan asked FBI Director Christopher Wray “to hand over all documents and communications related to the FBI’s ‘Crossfire Razor’ investigation of” former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
We have blogged about the documents recently released that give off the idea that the FBI set up Flynn.
Jordan, along with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), told Wray about the concerning details within the documents, but also do not like that Congress has not heard from him.
Jordan and Johnson also requested that Wray make “former FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap and FBI Agent Joe Pientka available for transcribed interviews about their relations related” to Flynn.
Jodan Letter to Wray – May 4 by Ashlee on Scribd
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