Congressman Matt Gaetz Demands Answers from IG Horowitz on IG Report at Joint Judiciary and OGR Hearing
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) today attended the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s (OGR) Joint Hearing on “Oversight of the FBI and DOJ Actions in Advance of the 2016 Election,” where he demanded answers from Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz on last week’s findings in the IG Report.
Yesterday, Rep. Gaetz, alongside Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Dave Brat (VA-07), Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Jody Hice (GA-10), Jim Jordan (OH-04), and Ralph Norman (SC-05) sent a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, requesting that the Inspector General provide the names of the unidentified FBI agents and employees in last week's report.
A transcript and video of the exchange between Rep. Gaetz and IG Horowitz can be found below.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH REP. GAETZ’S REMARKS AT THE HEARING
TRANSCRIPT
Rep. Gaetz: Thank you Mr. Chairman. From the amazon jungles to the streets of Shalimar, Florida, I've had the chance to observe the patriotic service of many frontline FBI agents and I’m in violent agreement with Mr. Wray that the information in your report does not in any way impugn the incredible work that they do.
Refresh my recollection. We know who Lisa Page is. She sent all these bad text messages about Donald Trump, but we don't know who FBI agents one through five are. Why the disparate treatment?
IG Horowitz: When we write up our report, we apply Privacy Act and other laws to decide whose name we can disclose and whose name on balance we think is a legal matter we can't. That's why you see some names in here and some names anonymized. We have the request from the committee. As I mentioned, we sought to get approval from the FBI to send that information forward.
Rep. Gaetz: What was the reason the FBI gave you as to why we couldn't learn who FBI agents one through five are?
IG Horowitz: They mentioned a couple of reasons but the primary reason was that because those individuals, two of them were agents, one is a lawyer, work on counterintelligence matters, they had a security and safety…
Rep. Gaetz: Peter Strzok worked on counterintelligence matters and we know who he is.
IG Horowitz: That's correct.
Rep. Gaetz: Why the disparate treatment.
IG Horowitz: I'm telling what was reported to us.
Rep. Gaetz: Who is attorney number two?
IG Horowitz: I have to think about who that is, but I-- again, I would want to make sure that what I was saying wasn't putting someone in jeopardy or at risk.
Rep. Gaetz: What was the reason the FBI gave for not telling us who attorney number two is?
IG Horowitz: Same reason. That that individual works on counterintelligence matters and safety and security reasons as well as some other reasons.
Rep. Gaetz: What were they? I want to obtain the full universal reasons because I feel as though sunshine and transparency will be the way to root out this bias that we seem to be reflected. Are you familiar with the resistance movement in the country?
IG Horowitz: I am familiar with it from looking at the text messages.
Rep. Gaetz: What's your general understanding what have that movement is?
IG Horowitz: I could just tell you what it says here, somehow resist what's going on in the country in terms of the government, governance. I have no real personal knowledge.
Rep. Gaetz: Does it mean resist Donald Trump? Resist his presidency?
IG Horowitz: That’s my understanding from what played out here.
Rep. Gaetz: So you've got Peter Strzok who goes from the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation to the FBI Trump/Russia investigation to the Mueller probe. You've got Lisa Page who goes from the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation to the FBI /Russia investigation to the Mueller probe, and then you have attorney number two who similarly goes from the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation to the Trump/Russia investigation to the Mueller probe.
It seems like a very bizarre coincidence that the way people tended to end up on the Mueller probe was some association with Hillary Clinton, whether it was the people I just identified or whether it was Andrew Wiseman who attended Hillary Clinton's election night party or whether it was Jeannie Rhee who defended the Clinton foundation in FOIA defenses, seems so bizarre that the people you would go and accumulate to prosecute the President of the United States and investigate him would be so intertangled with these fact patterns regarding Hillary Clinton. does that strike you as odd?
IG Horowitz: I don't know if it strikes me as odd other than I know as to the three individuals you mentioned occurred.
Rep. Gaetz: Is that usual for someone who is like directly tied to one element of a fact pattern to then migrate over to the other matters?
IG Horowitz: Excellent point. From a management matter, having done corruption cases, you wouldn't put someone who just investigated an individual on one side to go and investigate the other person.
Rep. Gaetz: Who made those staffing decisions?
IG Horowitz: The leadership of the FBI.
Rep. Gaetz: So it would have been James Comey who was fired and it would have been Andrew McCabe who has been referred for criminal prosecution as a consequence of your good work. Attorney number two says “Viva la Resistance” while actively investigating President Trump, is that right?
IG Horowitz: That's my understanding.
Rep. Gaetz: And does it trouble you that someone who is tasked with investigating the President was associating himself with a resistance movement against the very same President?
IG Horowitz: I will say what I said earlier. I don't care who that that person was investigating. That person should not be making comments about an individual or related to a person they are investigating or the FBI is working on.
Rep. Gaetz: Well, it will be totally unacceptable to my constituents to say that there was a person who went from the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation, to the Trump/Russia investigation, to the Mueller probe who identified himself and who you identified as the lead FBI lawyer on the Mueller probe, and we don't get to know who that person is, associating with the resistance and going after the President after this totally botched Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation that you've appropriately highlighted.
In this country, we cannot live in a world where unelected people at the FBI get to shelter someone who was actively working against the President and actively associating and identifying with a movement that is intended to frustrate everything this President is trying to do. So I hope we get that information Chairman, and I yield back.
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