Nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress on
Wednesday sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department and FBI seeking an
investigation of former bureau boss James Comey, his deputy Andrew McCabe,
ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton in connection with 2016
campaign controversies.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions already announced last
month he had assigned a federal prosecutor to review some of those broader
issues, while resisting calls for a second special counsel. But the referral
represents an escalation of Republican pressure to probe top Democrats and
Trump critics.
Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and 10 other House lawmakers
want an investigation into potential violations that cover everything from the
handling of the Clinton email probe to the anti-Trump dossier’s funding to the
Uranium One controversy. They made their case in a letter sent Wednesday to
Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and U.S. Attorney John Huber, whom
Sessions named to lead the previously announced evaluation.
Complaining about “dissimilar degrees of zealousness” in
the investigations into Clinton and Trump campaign associates, they wrote:
“Because we believe that those in positions of high
authority should be treated the same as every other American, we want to be
sure that the potential violations of law outlined below are vetted appropriately.”
They named Comey, Clinton, Lynch, McCabe, FBI agents
Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and several others as figures who should be
investigated.
The Comey section focused in part on a statement Comey
drafted before interviewing Clinton as part of the email probe. Republicans
have long called it an exoneration statement that effectively cleared her
months before the case was over.
The GOP letter suggested this presents a
conflict with Comey’s September 2016 congressional testimony in which he said they
made the decision not to recommend criminal charges after interviewing Clinton.
“They made this determination months before,” DeSantis,
who is running for Florida governor, told “Fox & Friends.” “The lack of
candor with the Congress is something that needs to be investigated.”
Comey brushed off the claims during an interview
Wednesday on ABC’s “The View.”
Asked about the letter, Comey said "the accusations
are not true," but added that he has confidence in the inspector general,
which is already reviewing the handling of the email probe.
"Let's let the institution do its work," he
said.
Comey also defended the early draft statement on the
conclusion of the Clinton case in his newly released book.
“Any investigator or prosecutor who doesn’t have a sense,
after nearly a year of investigation, where their case is likely headed, is
incompetent. Prosecutors routinely begin drafting indictments before an
investigation is finished if it looks likely to end up there, and competent
ones also begin thinking how to end investigations that seem likely to end
without charges,” Comey explained in "A Higher Loyalty."
The GOP lawmakers also cited Comey’s decision to write
and share memos detailing conversations with Trump.
The potential violations they cited included perjury and
unauthorized removal of classified documents – though Comey has maintained the
memos did not contain classified material.
As for Clinton, the GOP lawmakers cited a single concern
– that a lawyer representing her 2016 campaign paid the firm behind the
research that led to the controversial anti-Trump dossier. The letter argued
that they disguised the payments by not properly disclosing them to the Federal
Election Commission.
A Clinton spokesman slammed the referral as “pathetic”
and politically motivated.
“House Republicans have seen the numbers and are running
scared as we head into midterm season. They should focus on working for the
people they are asking to reelect them, not do Trump’s bidding. It’s pathetic,”
Nick Merrill said.
The referral's Lynch section cited an alleged threat of
“reprisal” against an informant in the Uranium One case, which dealt with the
controversial Obama administration deal that gave Russia partial control over
the U.S. uranium supply.
The lawmakers also hit McCabe over the same issues raised
in a recent DOJ inspector general report that found he leaked to the media and
later lied about it. The former FBI deputy director was fired last month by
Sessions just days before he would have been eligible for a lifetime pension
after it was determined that he misled investigators.
The section on Strzok and Page focused on their
“interference in the Hillary Clinton investigation.” The two FBI officials, who
worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team for a short period and were
romantically involved, frequently shared anti-Trump text messages.
Lastly, the lawmakers asked that Sessions investigate
personnel connected to the “compilation of documents on alleged links between
Russia and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump known as the 'Steele
dossier.'"
The letter cites those individuals as McCabe, Comey, former
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and FBI General Counsel Dana Boente, among
others.
The dossier was presented to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (FISC) to obtain a warrant to conduct surveillance on Trump
campaign adviser Carter Page.
Comey signed three FISA applications for Page, while
McCabe and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who oversees the
Russia probe), Yates and Boente each signed at least one.
In a footnote to the
letter, the lawmakers wrote that “due to the possible involvement of Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in signing an application for continued surveillance
on Carter Page, Rosenstein should be recused from any examination of FISA
abuse.”
