2020-04-27 CEG To DOJ (Flynn) PDF

April 27, 2020
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable William Barr
Attorney General
Department of Justice
Dear Attorney General Barr:
On February 15, 2017, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I wrote to the

Department with Ranking Member Feinstein, requesting a copy of the call transcript between Lt.
Gen. Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador and the FBI report summarizing the intercepted
call. Instead of providing the requested records, and as a result of my questions and concerns
relating to the Flynn case, I received a briefing from then-Director Comey on March 15, 2017.
In that briefing, Director Comey stated that the FBI agents that interviewed Lt. Gen. Flynn, “saw
nothing that led them to believe [he was] lying” and he led us to believe that the Department was
unlikely to prosecute Flynn for false statements. Later, during Comey’s book tour, he denied any
memory of those comments.
On May 11, 2018, I requested categories of documents relating to the Flynn case from
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, including call transcripts, 302s, and other potentially
exculpatory evidence and requested to interview a fact witness to the case, Special Agent
Pientka.
On May 29, 2018, the Department responded and declined to produce the requested
records and arrange for Special Agent Pientka to be interviewed. The Department also admitted
in that letter that it had yet to provide all exculpatory evidence to Flynn.
On June 6, 2018, I wrote a follow-up letter to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and
noted that if the facts of the case are inconsistent with the plea agreement, that would be an
extraordinarily concerning finding and one that would warrant continued congressional
oversight. I further noted in that letter that the United States Congress has a separate,
independent, constitutional interest in all information, including exculpatory information,
relating to the Flynn case. After that June 2018 letter, my staff and I met with Deputy Attorney
General Rosenstein where he resisted congressional oversight and suggested that Congress
should be satisfied with the facts described in the plea agreement. It is certainly in the interest of
Congress and the American people to know whether the FBI and the Department withheld facts
in the course of their investigation and prosecution of an American citizen that are materially
inconsistent with his plea.
Attorney General Barr
April 27, 2020
Page 2 of 2
This is no ordinary criminal case. One of the agents who interviewed Lt. Gen. Flynn,
Peter Strzok, was later removed from the Russia investigation after his texts demonstrating
animus and bias toward the President were discovered. Additionally, former Director McCabe
was fired for lack of candor regarding a leak to the Wall Street Journal, and Lt. Gen. Flynn was
an adverse witness in a pending sexual discrimination case against Mr. McCabe at the time Mr.
McCabe was supervising an inquiry targeting Lt. Gen. Flynn. 1 Further, the Flynn case was at the
center of a political firestorm over the President’s alleged statements about it to Director Comey.
Moreover, Flynn himself “had told both White House Counsel and the Chief of Staff at least
twice that the FBI agents had told him he would not be charged,” 2 which is consistent with what
Director Comey told me and my staff. The FBI’s conduct is ripe for congressional oversight.
According to an April 24, 2020, letter from the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia, Timothy Shea, the Attorney General directed that the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Missouri conduct an independent review of the Flynn case. As a result of this review,
the EDMO has identified and produced new documents to Flynn’s legal team, which they have
publicly characterized as exculpatory evidence.
Simply stated, after years of rampant speculation and publicly reported inconsistencies
regarding how the FBI handled the case, it’s time for the public to know the full set of facts
relating to Lt. Gen. Flynn, including any and all government misconduct. In light of the
extraordinary public and congressional interest in this case, I request that you work with Flynn’s
attorneys to unseal these new records provided to them so that the public can access the material.
In the alternative, I request that you amend the protective order so that Congress can review the
information in light of its constitutional oversight prerogatives.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee on Finance
1 See Letter from Chairman Grassley to Inspector General Horowitz (June 29, 2017),
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2017-06-
29%20CEG%20to%20DOJ%20IG%20(McCabe%20Conflicts).pdf
2 The Trump Lawyer’s Confidential Memo to Mueller, Explained, THE NEW YORK TIMES (June 2, 2018) (quoting
Letter from John M. Dowd and Jay A. Sekulow, Counsel to the President to Robert S. Mueller, Special Counsel,
U.S. Dep’t of Justice (Jan. 29, 2018)), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/02/us/politics/trump-legal-
documents html#footnote-0-26; Byron York, Trump Lawyers Reveal Previously Unknown Evidence in Michael
Flynn Case, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER (June 3, 2018), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/newlyleaked-
memo-previously-unknown-evidence-michael-flynn-case.

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April 27, 2020

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

Dear Attorney General Barr:

On February 15, 2017, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I wrote to the

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