Grassley Demands Answers in DOJ’s and FBI’s Heavy-Handed Targeting of Project Veritas Personnel – Senator Chuck Grassley

WASHINGTON Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, took the FBI to task and is demanding records relating to the search warrant execution at the home of Project Veritas founder James OKeefe and against other employees.

The Departments heavy-handed treatment of Project Veritas is notably different from the kid-glove and deferential treatment given to Hillary Clinton and her staff during its investigation into her mishandling of highly classified information, Grassley wrote.

Given the brazen and inconsistent standards employed by the Department [of Justice] against Project Veritas, Grassley is asking for all records relating to the FBIs compliance with relevant regulations and procedures governing the acquisition of Project Veritas information in light of the privileged and whistleblower information at issue, as well as copies of all search warrants and supporting documentation.

Following the publication of information from apparently privileged documents by the New York Times, the senator asks whether the FBI or Justice Department has opened any leak investigations.

Finally, Grassley presses the FBI and Justice Department to explain the two systems of justice embodied by the difference in approaches toward Project Veritas and subjects in prior investigations, specifically the Clinton investigation.

November 17, 2021

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable Merrick Garland

Attorney General

Department of Justice

The Honorable Christopher Wray

Director

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:

On November 6, 2021, the FBI executed a search warrant and raided the home of James OKeefe, the founder of Project Veritas, relating to the alleged theft of Ashley Bidens diary. During the course of the dawn raid, the FBI seized cell phones and began extracting data that could have included donor information, privileged communications with lawyers and confidential whistleblowers within government. In light of the governments conduct, the District Court for the Southern District of New York temporarily halted the governments search while considering whether to appoint a Special Master to ensure privileged and confidential information is protected from improper government access.

Specifically, the letters only permitted the FBI to review email archives within a limited date range, June 1, 2014, and before February 1, 2015, and so long as those emails were sent or received from Secretary Clintons four email addresses during her tenure as Secretary of State.

The letters also provided that the FBI would destroy any records which it retrieved that were not turned over to the investigatory team. Further, the letters memorialized the FBIs agreement to destroy the laptops that contained the information to be searched. This arrangement is simply astonishing given the likelihood that evidence on the laptops were of interest to congressional investigators.

Based on reports, the Department has clearly treated these two fact patterns much differently. On the one hand with respect to Project Veritas an organization that the Department has said is subject to the federal governments investigative power in limited circumstances and under careful scrutiny the Department and FBI have engaged the heavy hand of the federal government against it. This is in contrast to the Clinton investigation, where the Department and FBI proceeded with the softest touch possible even though the individuals under scrutiny werent journalists and the matter involved mishandling of highly classified national security information. Moreover, during the Clinton investigation, the governments search of records was subject to extensive communications between private counsel and government counsel to determine in advance of any review the scope of the information to be searched, which stands in stark contrast to the governments reported treatment against Project Veritas.

The reported fact pattern appears to implicate the Department and the FBI, yet again, in serious wrongdoing. It is critical that Department or FBI employees who participated in any misconduct in this case are not able to escape accountability, further underscoring the need for testimonial subpoena authority in light of the general practice of employees resigning before they can be interviewed.

Given the brazen and inconsistent standards employed by the Department against Project Veritas and in order to better understand the Departments and FBIs decision-making process in this matter, please answer the following no later than December 1, 2021:

2. Please provide all search warrants and supporting documentation used to search cellphones and for physical searches of the homes of Project Veritas employees.

3. Has the Department or FBI opened any leak investigation(s) with respect to the provision of records from the case to the news media? If not, why not?

4. With respect to the way the Department and FBI handled the Clinton investigation and Project Veritas, please explain why the Department and FBI did not afford Project Veritas the same treatment that it afforded Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

-30-

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Grassley Demands Answers in DOJ's and FBI's Heavy-Handed Targeting of Project Veritas Personnel - Senator Chuck Grassley