‘Obama White House is Running This’ Exchange Between FBI Lovebirds Prompts Grassley to Seek Unredacted Strzok-Page Text Messages
by Cristina Laila
TheGatewayPundit.com
May 23, 2018
On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to the DOJ seeking the removal of remaining redactions on Strzok-Page text messages.
Grassley gave the Justice Department until June 6th to hand over the requested documents to the Committee.
An exchange between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page quoting a redacted official saying “the White House is running this,” prompted Senator Grassley to seek the removal of remaining redactions to give more context to the conversation.
Grassley said in a letter to Deputy AG Rosenstein:
“On May 1, 2018, and May 18, 2018, Committee staff reviewed in camera less redacted versions of the Strzok and Page text message productions provided to the Committee. On several occasions, my staff have requested that the Department of Justice provide the Committee with a redaction key, to no avail. Thus, the Committee is still in the dark about the justification the Department is relying upon to withhold that information from Congress. As one example of redacted material, in a text message produced to the Committee, the price of Andrew McCabe’s $70,000 conference table was redacted.[1] In another, an official’s name was redacted in reference to a text about the Obama White House “running” an investigation, although it is unclear to which investigation they were referring.[2]
In order to see under the redactions, Committee staff had to travel to main Justice to review a lesser redacted version. When viewing the still redacted portions in context with the unredacted material, it appeared that the redacted portions may contain relevant information relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the manner in which the Department of Justice and FBI handled the Clinton and Russia investigations.[3]
Congress, and the public, have a right to know how the Department spends taxpayer money. I am unaware of any legitimate basis on which the cost of a conference table should be redacted. Embarrassment is not a good enough reason. The manner in which some redactions have been used casts doubt on whether the remaining redactions are necessary and defensible.
The Rest…HERE
