Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wants to know if former Special Counsel Robert Mueller had access to the newly released FBI documents on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, in which the then-counterintelligence director openly questioned if their “goal” was to “get him to lie.”
“New DOJ/Flynn docs are stamped w [sic] SCO as in Special Counsels Office,” Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote on Twitter Thursday, “Did Mueller have these docs? Why did his team sit on them? What else is Mueller team that cost taxpayers $30+ million hiding? The ppl deserve answers 2restore faith in federal law enforcement agencies.”
The documents referenced by Grassley were provided by the Justice Department as part of a re-examination of Flynn’s case.
The four-page document included one page of handwritten notes, believed to be written by former FBI counterintelligence director Bill Priestap. The notes were taken in January 2017, following a meeting with former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, according to Fox News.
Priestap’s handwritten remarks were taken down on the heels of a critical interview with the newly installed national security adviser regarding Flynn’s contacts weeks earlier with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
“What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” Priestap wrote. “If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ & have them decide. Or, if he initially lies, then we present him [redacted] & he admits it, document for DOJ, & let them decide how to address it.”
Priestap went on to note that his work must “protect our institution by not playing games,” also saying that “If we are seen as playing games, [the White House] will be furious.”
Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Kislyak. However, his lawyers now say they believe this document supports their case to reverse his plea, citing investigative misconduct.
Sidney Powell, Flynn’s attorney, said in a Fox News appearance Wednesday night of the documents, “It’s just absolutely appalling what these agents, and then special counsel operatives, did to General Flynn. It’s abuse of their authority at every turn.”