{UAH} RED FLAGS ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION WERE CONCEALED

‘Red flags from the beginning’: Grenell says concerns about Trump-Russia investigation were concealed

by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter | 

 

June 14, 2020 01:54 PM

The nation’s former acting spy chief says there were “red flags from the beginning” of the Trump-Russia investigation, but concerns that were raised, including about potential flaws with British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier, were concealed from the public.

Richard Grenell, who was previously the U.S. ambassador to Germany and the temporary director of national intelligence, told host Maria Bartiromo of Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures that problems were raised by numerous officials early on in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation were concealed from the public.

He specifically pointed to information he helped unearth through his own declassification reviews, including dozens of recently released witness interview transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee and formerly redacted footnotes from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, showed that problems with key parts of the Russia investigation were buried through over-classification.

“The Russian investigation had all sorts of red flags from the beginning, and when you look at the transcripts, when you look at the declassified footnotes from some of the investigations, it’s clear, Maria, that there were multiple people from multiple agencies that were raising red flags,” he said. “However, what was really sad to me is that those red flags and those voices were pushed aside, classified, and never shown to the public, and so very few people knew the truth, and the silence from those people was really shocking, and so what I wanted to do was be transparent.”

Grenell argued that “transparency is never political” and “transparency is what the American people demand — and it’s what Washington, D.C., is very uncomfortable with.”

Horowitz’s lengthy report, which was released late last year, criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act against Trump campaign associate Carter Page in 2016 and 2017 and for the bureau's reliance on Steele’s salacious and flawed dossier. Steele put his research together at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, funded by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Footnotes declassified in April with the help of Grenell and Attorney General William Barr showed that Steele's dossier might have been compromised by Russian disinformation in 2016. FBI investigators received information in 2017, “indicating the potential for Russian disinformation influencing Steele’s election reporting,” seemingly related to the biggest salacious and unverified claims in Steele’s dossier.

Grenell also successfully pushed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to release 53 witness transcripts from the panel’s investigation on Russian election interference, which showed top Obama national security officials saying they did not have direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.

“What I will say is, I really encourage people to read the footnotes. When you read these footnotes, you clearly see that the intelligence community, not just the FBI, but multiple agencies, knew that the charges were flimsy or that the Russians from the very beginning were wreaking havoc on the process by pushing propaganda into the Steele Dossier,” he said. “People knew this, Maria. There were red flags from the very beginning, and those voices within the intelligence community were pushed aside or classified or both, and most people never saw the warning signs, and that’s exactly the problem, I think, that we have to drop back and solve.”

Grenell also pointed to the “inappropriate” unmasking efforts carried out by the Obama administration during the transition period between Trump’s early November 2016 win and his late January 2017 inauguration. He demurred when asked if he believes there is such a thing as the “deep state” and pointed to “incredible public servants within the intelligence community, who themselves are really annoyed by the bad apples.” He said that “there’s no question that we have specific people, and it’s more than just a few who are in jobs, using their political bias to manipulate the process” on both sides of the aisle.

The former acting spy chief was also asked what sort of declassifications might be expected by the newly-confirmed Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

“Look, I think that this entire Russian investigation, the beginning of it, how it was developed, needs to — somebody needs to look at what is classified and whether or not that needs to come clean,” Grenell said. “We started that process, I’ve coordinated with John. He’s a great guy. He’s really focused and smart on getting to the truth. He’s removing politics from the equation, and just looking at the facts and what needs to be done, so I have great faith in our new Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.”

Last week, Ratcliffe provided the Senate with a declassified version of the annex attached to the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment containing unverified allegations from Steele’s dossier. The Washington Examiner learned that Ratcliffe will now review the underlying intelligence in that 2017 assessment on Russian election interference, including information related to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s specific motivations. The former Texas Republican congressman may declassify more from the House Intelligence Committee’s 2018 report on Kremlin meddling.

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