Prepared Senate Floor Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Lack of Transparency about Russia Investigation Targets
June 22, 2017
In March, then-FBI Director James Comey briefed Ranking Member Feinstein and me on the Russia investigation. This included telling us who was, and who was not, under investigation.
After that meeting, I publicly called for Mr. Comey to tell the public what he had told us about whether President Trump was under investigation. The public had a right to know.
Mr. Comey told me and other Congressional leaders that President Trump was not under investigation. He even told the President himself - repeatedly.
But, Mr. Comey didn’t listen to my request for transparency. He didn’t listen to the President’s request. Only months later has the truth finally come out.
Well, what happened in the meantime? What happened because Mr. Comey refused to tell the American people that the President wasn’t under investigation?
The short answer is: media hysteria.
Countless media articles falsely claimed the President was under investigation for colluding with Russia. And, unfortunately, a number of our Democrat colleagues in the House and Senate played right along.
Over and over again, the media published selective leaks. They published classified half-truths. All this was used to make false allegations of sinister conduct by the President. And a lot of people believed it.
The intelligence community conducted an assessment of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election. That assessment said one of Russia’s goals was to undermine public confidence in our democratic system. Because Mr. Comey refused to tell the public that the FBI was not investigating the President, conspiracy theories and wild speculation have run rampant about the election, the President, and Russia.
These conspiracy theories and wild speculation have played right into Russia’s aim of undermining faith in our democratic system. Those national security concerns should have taken precedence.
Mr. Comey said he was worried about a duty to correct the record if evidence of collusion involving the President came to light later. But, that concern was merely hypothetical—pure speculation. In the unlikely event it came to pass, the public should know if the FBI is pursuing a criminal investigation against the President.
Just like the public should know if the FBI is pursuing a criminal investigation against a major party’s nominee for President. But, Mr. Comey agreed with then-Attorney General Lynch to shade the truth in favor of the Clinton campaign’s rhetoric and call that investigation a “matter” instead.
After a year of the entire might of the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI looking for evidence of collusion with the Russians, where is it?
But, after all of this chaos, and mountains of innuendo about the President and collusion with Russia, the truth finally came out: The FBI was not investigating President Trump in the Russia probe.
The media was wrong. The Democrats were wrong. The wild speculation and conspiracy theories harmed our country. They played right into Russia’s hands.
And how did we all learn the truth? In President Trump’s letter removing Mr. Comey from office.
At first, most didn’t believe it. The media scoffed. They insisted that Mr. Comey would never tell the President he was not under investigation.
Well, we learned earlier this month from Mr. Comey himself, that he had done exactly that. It wasn’t a surprise to me, because Mr. Comey had told me the same thing.
I have to note something else here. Mr. Comey didn’t just tell the President, Senator Feinstein, and me that the President was not under investigation. He also had told the Gang of Eight.
Of course, the Gang of Eight includes the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Schumer. But even after Mr. Comey told the Gang of Eight that the President was not under investigation, the Minority Leader told the media he was. That helped feed the media hysteria.
The Minority Leader even tried to say that the Senate shouldn’t vote on the Supreme Court nomination because the President was under investigation. And the whole time, he knew it wasn’t true.
So media hysteria and baseless political attacks filled the vacuum left by Mr. Comey’s failure to inform the public. But none of this fiasco had to happen. If Mr. Comey had just been transparent with the public, as I urged him to be, it could have been avoided.
Unfortunately, now it looks like Mr. Comey and the media might be doing the same thing to Attorney General Sessions. Two weeks ago, Mr. Comey said he didn’t tell the Attorney General about the conversation he supposedly had with the President about General Flynn. Mr. Comey said this was because he believed the Attorney General was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Mr. Comey said the FBI was aware of facts that he couldn’t discuss in an open setting that would have made the Attorney General’s continued engagement problematic.
Well, that vague statement sounds very mysterious to people who don’t know the whole truth. They will wonder: What were these secret facts? And what did the FBI conclude about them? Was the Attorney General under investigation? Did he collude with Russia?
Once again, Mr. Comey is not being as transparent about senior government officials and the Russia investigation as he could or should be.
Now the speculation is beginning to run rampant again, this time about the Attorney General, instead of the President. CNN reported that Mr. Comey told the Intelligence Committee behind closed doors that the issue was a possible additional meeting between Sessions and the Russian Ambassador. The media has begun to speculate all sorts of nefarious things.
Here we go again. The rumor mill is back in business. It’s insinuating improper ties with Russians and undermining people’s faith in another senior government official.
This is the same destructive pattern. And it plays right into Russia’s hands again.
Well, this time around, we shouldn’t put up with it. Enough is enough. There’s no reason Mr. Comey couldn’t have told the public the whole truth.
Once again: three months ago, Mr. Comey specifically told members who was and who was not under investigation in the Russia probe. He should also tell the public whether the FBI ever had an open investigation on Attorney General Sessions. He should tell the public whether the FBI checked out the times Sessions met the Russian ambassador. He should tell the public whether the FBI looked into the Mayflower event. And he should tell the public if the FBI found nothing improper about those meetings. If there was nothing to it, he should say so publicly.
He should not be telling Senators one thing behind closed doors and then making public insinuations that are different. He can nip this ridiculous speculation in the bud.
Mr. Comey should have told the public earlier what he told members about the President. And now he should tell the public what he told members about the Attorney General.
The investigations of Russian interference and of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Comey’s firing will continue. I’m confident we will eventually get all the facts, one way or the other. And we will go where the facts take us.
In the meantime, it’s time to stop the rumor-mongering. It’s time to stop the innuendo and half-truths. It’s time to stop leaking national security information to score political points.
It’s time to stop playing into Russia’s hands by intentionally sowing false doubt about your political opponents.
Instead, it’s time to get back to doing the people’s work.
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