[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 216 (Wednesday, December 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S9177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Crossfire Hurricane

  Mr. President, on another matter, on January 19 of this year, then-
President Trump issued a memorandum to the Attorney General, the 
Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Central 
Intelligent Agency. That memo directed these Agencies to declassify 
certain Crossfire Hurricane records for public dissemination.
  We all know about the fatal defects and political decisions that were 
made during Crossfire Hurricane. That type of improper government 
conduct demands maximum transparency. The only way you can trust the 
government is to make sure that everything that can be made public 
ought to be made public, and the only exceptions to that would be 
personal privacy, national security issues, and intelligence matters. 
Everything else is the public's business and can be made public without 
hurting people or hurting national security.
  On February 25 this year, my staff and Senator Johnson's staff 
requested an update from the Justice Department on what has been 
declassified. We want to know when a full and complete set of 
declassified records will be provided to the Congress of the United 
States.
  Since February, our respective staffs have followed up with the 
Justice Department on countless emails and phone calls. Attorney 
General Garland has consistently failed to provide a substantive 
update.
  We are now in December, and Attorney General Garland hasn't produced 
a single declassified record to Congress relating to Crossfire 
Hurricane. More importantly, Attorney General Garland has kept the 
American people in the dark.
  Now, the Justice Department hasn't claimed that the Durham 
investigation is a basis for refusing to provide these records, so what 
is the delay all about? Is the Attorney General trying to shield the 
Justice Department and the FBI from further embarrassment? Because that 
is why we don't get a lot of stuff public. It is because some 
bureaucrat is going to be embarrassed by the information coming out.
  The other week, it was reported that an alternative Mueller report 
has been located at the Justice Department. Now, I don't know what that 
is all about. Reportedly, DOJ could release it soon. This report, if 
you want to call it a report, was drafted by Andrew Weissmann's team 
while he served on Special Counsel Mueller's Trump investigation.

  Now, I want you to know this is the same Andrew Weissmann who wiped 
his government phone while working on that investigation. Many of his 
colleagues did the same thing to over a dozen phones.
  These acts may have deleted Federal records that could be key to 
better understanding their decision-making process as they pursued 
their investigation and wrote their report.
  On September 11 last year, I wrote to the Justice Department, asking 
about the potential violation of the Federal recordkeeping laws. I also 
asked what steps the Justice Department had taken to recover these 
deleted records.
  In response, then, the usual response: The Department failed to 
answer these questions. Instead, it provided a letter from the 
inspector general rather than providing a full and complete answer for 
itself.
  The inspector general said that 96 phones were assigned to the 
Mueller team, but the Justice Department can't locate 59 of those 
phones. Initially, the Justice Department took possession of 79 of 96 
phones.
  Based on the information provided to me and Senator Johnson from the 
inspector general, it appears, then, that 74 were reviewed for official 
recordkeeping purposes; that is, only 74 out of 96 phones.
  Accordingly, 22 of Mueller's team's phones weren't reviewed for 
Federal recordkeeping purposes so we need to know who those phones 
belong to. This is beyond suspicious, and the Attorney General doesn't 
seem to have a care in the world.
  The inspector general told us there is a document called the SCO 
Inventory and Property Transfer Document. That would give us a better 
idea of the Federal recordkeeping process during the Mueller 
investigation. To date, Attorney General Garland has failed to produce 
that document.
  So what we have here is yet another example of a complete and total 
Justice Department failure. On the one hand, the Biden Justice 
Department has no idea what records should be classified--should be 
declassified pursuant to President Trump's January 2021 
declassification order.
  The Biden Justice Department has failed to tell Congress what, if 
anything, it has done to retrieve the missing Mueller phones. The Biden 
Justice Department has also failed to provide the Mueller team's 
existing text messages and other records.
  Yet, can you believe it, on the other hand, the Justice Department 
will reportedly soon release an alternative Mueller report because a 
Federal court made them do it.
  Congress has an independent constitutional oversight authority, and 
that authority requires the executive branch to be responsive to 
oversight requests, irrespective of any Federal litigation.
  The obvious message from the Biden Justice Department is that it will 
stiff-arm congressional oversight that could prove embarrassing to the 
Federal Government--or it is like Garland saying: Screw you, Senators.
  Our institutions won't survive with that way of doing the people's 
business. Transparency brings accountability. Probably my colleagues 
are tired of my saying that--transparency brings accountability. But 
none of us should stop working to hold government officials accountable 
for their improper conduct, regardless of their political party.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.