Two Senate Republicans asked the Justice Department this week to give additional information about its investigation into Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, specifically about the role “Anonymous” author Miles Taylor played in it.
Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr asking the DOJ to declassify its entire report on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” sting and related investigations involving Trump campaign staffers.
The probe into now debunked claims of Russian collusion—which had been devised by the Hillary Clinton campaign—resulted in the DOJ authorizing FBI surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The subsequent Mueller investigation brought charges against three other Trump-campaign associates: foreign policy adviser George Papdopoulos, campaign manager Paul Manafort and national security adviser Flynn.
The DOJ’s section on Flynn lists Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official who recently revealed himself as the author of the New York Times’s infamous “Anonymous” op-ed, as a possible witness.
After resigning, Taylor—still concealing his identity—went on to publish a book about his resistance efforts in the White House.
Johnson and Grassley want to see all of Taylor’s interview notes with the FBI in light of this recent revelation.
“This 11-page document includes information about the status of the then-ongoing investigations into those individuals and references new information obtained through witness interviews,” Johnson and Grassley wrote.
“This heavily-redacted document suggests that the FBI spoke directly to Taylor and it also provides additional information relating to Crossfire Hurricane,” the letter continued. “Accordingly, we request that the entire document be further declassified … In addition, we request all records relating to the FBI’s interview of Miles Taylor, including all 302s and notes, to better understand his role in the Flynn investigation.”
It appears the FBI interviewed Taylor, but the DOJ’s report on this interview has been almost entirely redacted.
Johnson and Grassley now want to know if Taylor’s interview played a role in pushing the FBI to investigate Flynn.
“We believe that further declassification is appropriate at this time because, among other factors, the Inspector General’s review of Crossfire Hurricane is closed; the investigation has already been the subject of years of oversight, public hearings, and document productions; and there is a strong public interest in knowing and understanding what really transpired between and among federal government officials relating to Crossfire Hurricane,” Johnson and Grassley wrote.
