WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley fired off a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Wednesday questioning numerous probes into acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and asking whether investigators have found any political conflicts from these inquiries.
In his letter to Rosenstein, Grassley reminded him that he already asked about McCabe’s apparent conflict of interests due to his close relationship with Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, among other issues, and then pointed out that McCabe appears to be the focus of three separate pending investigations.
“First, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General is examining his failure to recuse himself from the Clinton investigation due to his political relationship with McAuliffe. Second, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is investigating allegations that he violated the Hatch Act by engaging in political campaign activities,” Grassley wrote.
“Third, he is also reportedly the subject of a pending Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint by a female FBI agent for sex discrimination, who alleges she was targeted for retaliation because of her complaint,” he added.
Chairman Grassley cited a new report by Circa News that says former Trump National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was the subject of retaliation from the FBI for supporting the female FBI agent through an official letter during the case.
Grassley writes that Flynn’s support for the agent and McCabe’s involvement in the gender discrimination case “raises serious questions about why Mr. McCabe also failed to recuse himself from investigations involving Mr. Flynn.” He adds, “Recent press report states that three FBI employees, ‘personally witnessed McCabe make disparaging remarks about Flynn before and during the time the retired Army general emerged as a figure in the Russia case.’ That evidence and the failure to recuse calls into question whether Mr. McCabe handled the Flynn investigation fairly and objectively, or whether he had any retaliatory motive against Flynn for being an adverse witness to him in a pending proceeding.”
When asked by The Daily Caller Thursday if he plans to ask McCabe to testify before his committee on this matter, Grassley responded, “I don’t think so at this point. I wouldn’t say we would not but not at this point.”
Grassley is also attempting to get information from the FBI of all proposed and final applications for surveillance warrants the bureau tried to have granted from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) related to the probe of Russian influence peddling in the 2016 election. (RELATED: Senate Requests Russia Probe Surveillance Docs From FBI)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, used an upper chamber procedural motion to block a closed-door hearing, hosted by Grassley’s committee, on U.S. citizens being “unmasked” during FISA surveillance. (RELATED: Schumer Blocks National Security Briefing For Senate Committee)