Chuck Grassley wants 4 key footnotes of the IG report into Crossfire Hurricane declassified. Here’s why.
Margot Cleveland shared news about a letter Chuck and Ron Johnson are sending to Bill Barr, with a request to declassify for footnotes. They believe that a very different understanding of the IG report will come from the release of those 4 redactions.
Here is the key concern raised in the letter:
In the unclassified letter, the senators wrote, “We have reviewed the findings of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) with regard to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and we are deeply concerned about certain information that remains classified. Specifically, we are concerned that certain sections of the public version of the report are misleading because they are contradicted by relevant and probative classified information redacted in four footnotes.
“This classified information is significant not only because it contradicts key statements in a section of the report, but also because it provides insight essential for an accurate evaluation of the entire investigation. The American people have a right to know what is contained within these four footnotes and, without that knowledge, they will not have a full picture as to what happened during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
Credit where it’s due, we’ll show her tweet thread, before unpacking some key ideas.
The letter notes that the footnotes contradict key statements of the report. 2/ pic.twitter.com/8AFhnWcVfj
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 29, 2020
4/ Here's the first contradiction. pic.twitter.com/N3llEsXd8R
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 29, 2020
6/ And the extent of spying buried in the footnotes, included spying by Comey on Trump. pic.twitter.com/NrKw3cbiEH
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 29, 2020
8/ Here's how Horowitz presented it in the text. pic.twitter.com/7HwLvUzg3D
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 29, 2020
10/ In short, then, in scouring the IG report, 4 footnotes stuck out to me as adding significant detail and contradicting the thrust of the text, and having highlighted those in today's piece, Grassley's letter today about 4 more redacted footnotes hit hard.
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 29, 2020
Ok, here are the 4 contradictions she thinks we’re looking at:
1) a CHS (confidential human source) was being used by Crossfire Hurricane as a ‘passive listening post’ (e.g. mole) within the Trump campaign contradicts assertions that Crossfire Hurricane had decided against making use of this source
2) Reference to ‘Few’ campaign communication emails being found was not exculpatory… but attributable to limitations of the scope of this inquiry.
3) Role of spying, including Comey spying on Trump was downplayed. (Spying included those now-infamous contemporaneous notes Comey leaked to the public after meeting with Trump.)
4) Downplayed role of Pientka seeking a list of ‘positions within the administration’ in which an agent could be planted as a spy.
