Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, the out-going chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, began tying up one of the oversight investigations that he had long promised to get to the bottom of by releasing new transcripts related to the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” scandal.
“I believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ,” Graham said in a press release announcing the transcripts.
Many of the Senate probe’s more prominent witnesses were publicly televised, but at least one key player—former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr—was among those listed in the new transcripts.
Ohr and his wife, Nellie, a Fusion GPS employee, became the back-door conduit for hand-delivering the Steele Dossier reports to the FBI.
He previously testified before a House investigative hearing that he had met with Steele and was aware of the former British spy’s strong desire to undermine the Trump campaign.
Dana Boente, a top Justice Department attorney who briefly became acting attorney general when President Donald Trump fired Sally Yates, was also among those who testified. His name appeared on a warrant application reauthorizing the FBI to spy on Trump advisers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Jonathan Moffa, one of the FBI counterintelligence chiefs who worked with Peter Strzok on the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation also testified.
Five of the 11 witnesses remain redacted and identified only by their roles.
Due to the ongoing investigation by special counsel John Durham into potential criminal activity, several redactions to the testimony remained in place.
However, with Democrats poised to resume control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, the prospect of additional disclosures under Biden administration officials seems dim.
Graham expressed his optimism, nonetheless, that there might be lasting bipartisan reforms to emerge from the scandal.
“I will be pursuing reforms of counterintelligence investigations and warrant applications, and hope that my Democratic and Republican colleagues can find common ground on these matters,” he said.
“I also hope and expect that FBI Director Wray will continue the reforms he has started,” Graham continued. “… The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations. We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system.”
