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Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting more information about missing cellphones that were used by then-special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into former President Donald Trumpâs 2016 campaign.
In a statement, the senators said they were compelled to send the letter (pdf) after the DOJ failed to review more than 20 phones for record preservation after Grassley in September 2020 asked about a possible violation of federal record-keeping laws, following a Freedom of Information Act revelation showing records on devices used by Muellerâs team had been deleted.
The DOJâs Office of the Inspector General in September 2020, the senators wrote, told them that several phones belonging to âmultiple people on then-Special Counsel Robert Muellerâs investigative team were âwipedâ for various reasons during [the Russia investigation].â Meanwhile, on May 11, the inspector general said 59 of 96 phones assigned to Muellerâs team couldnât be located, according to the senators.
Relating to the phones, the two senators are seeking the names of the special counselâs office team members whose cellphones werenât reviewed by officials, if there are any actions being taken to recover the missing phones, and whether the DOJ reviewed the devices to see if âthey were used to leak sensitive or classified information,â among other requests.
The Mueller probe in 2018 ultimately concluded that Trumpâs campaign didnât collude with the Russian government, although Democrats in Congress have continued to accuse Trump of having a cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For the past several years, Grassley and Johnson have sent a number of requests to the DOJ about the investigation, as well as asking the agency about records relating to President Joe Bidenâs son Hunter Biden.
Around the same time that House Democrats were leading an impeachment inquiry into Trumpâs efforts in Ukraine in late 2019, the DOJâs inspector general released a report finding that the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court processes in obtainingâand renewingâwarrants to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. In all, the inspector general found at least 17 âsignificant errors or omissionsâ in the FISA surveillance of Page.
âThat so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that were briefed to the highest levels within the FBI, and that FBI officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny,â the report stated, âraised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of commandâs management and supervision of the FISA process.â
DOJ officials didnât immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.