Whatever are they up to?
Grassley, Graham want the FBI’s Russia surveillance warrants
By Austin Wright, Politico
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and panel member Lindsey Graham are asking the FBI to turn over some closely guarded secrets: its applications for warrants to spy on people suspected of helping Russia meddle in last year’s presidential election.
Grassley’s panel is currently investigating Russia’s election interference, including the circumstances behind the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
In a letter released Wednesday, Grassley (R-Iowa) and Graham (R-S.C.) asked the Justice Department and FBI to turn over all proposed and final applications for surveillance warrants submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, along with the court’s responses, related to the FBI’s Russia probe.
Rachel Maddow has an idea: Discredit the Trump Russia investigation
Republicans are requesting the exact same documents the FBI got warrants for as it pertains to Trump, the campaign and the White House.
“These Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are now asking about why you started that investigation, what you have, what you submitted to the court, how you got your warrants,” Maddow explained. “What they appear to be up to is trying to discredit the FBI for having started this investigation at all. What they are implying is that the whole FBI investigation all stemmed from that dossier of allegations against Trump and his campaign that was published in Buzzfeed in January, the Christopher Steele dossier. They’re saying implicitly that the dossier of materials is unproven and suspect and that that’s what the FBI’s whole investigation is based on, and therefore, it’s nonsense.”
She went on to conclude that the Senate Republicans are “trying to stop this thing in its tracks before it comes to its conclusion.”