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The Grassley Memo

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On February 6, 2018, Senator Chuck Grassley released an updated version of his Christopher Steele Criminal Referral – the Grassley Memo.

On January 4, 2018, Grassley referred Christopher Steele – the author of the Trump Dossier – to the DOJ in a letter containing the following:

Attached please find a classified memorandum related to certain communications between Christopher Steele and multiple U.S. news outlets regarding the so-called “Trump dossier” that Mr. Steele compiled on behalf of Fusion GPS for the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee and also provided to the FBI.

Based on the information contained therein, we are respectfully referring Mr. Steele to you for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, for statements the Committee has reason to believe Mr. Steele made regarding his distribution of information contained in the dossier.

Grassley’s letter contained a classified eight-page Memo that was not initially made public.

Grassley immediately began pushing the DOJ/FBI to declassify the Memo.

On January 24, 2018, Grassley delivered a prepared Floor Statement on “Oversight of the Justice Department and the Need for Transparency” in which he called for the full and unclassified release of his attached memo:

I have already been pushing the Department to review the classified referral memorandum to confirm the memo’s classification markings so that we can release the unclassified portions as soon as possible. But now the Department has deferred to the FBI, and the FBI is falsely claiming that three of our unclassified paragraphs each contain the same, single classified fact.

The government should release the underlying documents referenced in those memos, after deleting any national security information that truly needs to be protected. But most of this story can be told, and should be told.

Grassley was actually calling for public release of all the classified, underlying documents backing the Grassley Memo – not just the Memo itself.

On February 2, 2018, Grassley sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding full declassification of the memo attached to Grassley’s original letter:

On January 4, 2018, Senator Graham and I sent a classified memo to the Justice Department and the FBI. The eight-page memo referred for further investigation materially inconsistent statements reportedly made by Christopher Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 Presidential election. On January 19, 2018, an FBI Congressional liaison, Greg Brower, sent a letter claiming that a few of the paragraphs marked as unclassified in our memo contained classified information. A redacted copy of Mr. Brower’s letter is attached for reference.

I ask that you immediately review the classified referral in light of today’s declassification and provide the Committee with the declassified version by no later than February 6, 2018.

FBI Director Wray did not remove all redactions – but he did remove most.

The newer, less-redacted version is here. The earlier, more heavily redacted version is here.

The difference between the two versions is startling as can be seen in a side by side comparison:

The Grassley Memo is full of damning information. It’s so densely packed with information it’s hard to know what to highlight.

2018-02-06 CEG LG to DOJ FBI (Unclassified Steele Referral) by Washington Examiner on Scribd

Some excerpts:


Either Steele lied or the FBI did.


The FBI relied heavily on the Steel Dossier in their FISA application.


The FBI relied on Christopher Steele without corroboration.


There was no corroborating information other than the Circular Reporting done by Steele.


The FBI hid the source of the Dossier’s funding.


The FBI used oppositional research to establish surveillance of a rival presidential candidate.


Circular Reporting.


Circular Reporting as corroboration.


The FBI stated in the FISA application that they did not believe the news reports stemmed from Steele. The news reports came directly from Steele.


The FBI continued to vouch for Steele’s credibility to the FISA Court after terminating Steele for leaking. The FBI continued to defend the September 23 Yahoo article.


The FBI continued to vouch for Steele during subsequent FISA Renewals.


Steele admitted he contributed to numerous media leaks – before his termination by the FBI.


Steele briefed various media outlets at the direction of Fusion GPS.


The FBI continued to hide evidence of Steele’s media leaking.


The FBI knew of Bruce Ohr’s involvement and his relationship with Steele – and Fusion.


No information from – or regarding Bruce Ohr was disclosed to the FISA Court.


Steele compiled information from June to early November 2016. This was widely known, making the incoming information subject to manipulation.


Steele admitted to using unsolicited – and unverified – information from unvetted sources.


The State Department contributed information. Information actually flowed into Steele’s Dossier from the Clinton Campaign.


The summation.


Kim Strassel summarizes:

Quick Takes:

This tweet probably summed up the Grassley Memo the best:

 

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