The newly declassified Russiagate document exposes a deep state coverup, Chuck Grassley says
The newly released annex to John Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report exposes the “weaponization” of the FBI under the Obama administration and the agency’s involvement in an attempt to ruin Donald Trump’s presidency in 2016, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has said.
The senator, a key figure behind the release of the 29-page document, made the remarks to Fox News on Thursday shortly after the annex was published. The file outlines the alleged effort by the Hillary Clinton campaign to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia, and the FBI’s failure to properly investigate the activities despite having solid intelligence.
“[The Durham annex] gives us information that the FBI had eight to ten years ago that they never followed up on. It actually brings attention to the fact that there was either a Clinton conspiracy to make this happen, or Russian disinformation. Either way, it was an attempt to stop Trump, and it proves that the FBI had a hand in it,” Grassley stated.
The annex provides “evidence of the great depth that the deep state will go to cover up weaponization that was going on in the FBI and the executive branch of government, generally, under the Obama administration,” the senator suggested. America needs “maximum transparency” on the 2016 presidential race “schemes” that were hatched “to either stop Trump from being elected or… to ruin his presidency,” he added.
According to the document, the FBI obtained intelligence on “confidential conversations” between then-Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and individuals at George Soros’ Open Society Foundations in early 2016, yet did not take any action. The conversations reportedly detailed a plan to discredit the then-Republican candidate by preparing “scandalous revelations of business relations between Trump and the Russian Mafia.”
The agency allegedly obtained further evidence on the matter in mid-2016, including several “likely authentic” emails sent by Leonard Benardo, senior vice president of the Open Society Foundations. The emails further detailed the plot to “disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated ‘attic-based’ technical structures,” and appeared to predict a future FBI probe into Russiagate, suggesting the agency “will put more oil into the fire” later on.
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