Top Republican senators are telling officials in the Department of Justice to ensure that all records concerning the investigation into President-elect Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith are preserved ahead of the new administration.
“[C]onsidering the Justice Department’s past destruction of federal records relevant to congressional oversight and political bias infecting its decision-making process, we request that you preserve all records related to the Justice Department’s criminal investigations of former President Trump by Special Counsel Smith,” wrote Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in a letter to Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
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Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, left, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., right, instructed the DOJ to preserve records from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s cases. (Reuters)
“The improper conduct of the past cannot be repeated in this matter; therefore, all records must be preserved so that Congress can perform an objective and independent review.”
Smith led federal investigations into Trump’s possession of classified documents and federal election interference before introducing charges.
After Trump decisively won the presidential election last week against Vice President Kamala Harris, Smith filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against Trump, which was widely expected.
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The case has not yet been officially dropped, but Smith claimed his team plans to give an updated report on its official status on Dec. 2.
Smith also filed a motion in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to halt his previous request to appeal the classified documents case after it was dismissed by U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon.
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President-elect Trump was the subject of two indictments from Smith. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Grassley and Johnson noted in their correspondence that in 2020, released DOJ records revealed that cellphones of multiple people on then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team were “wiped” for various reasons during its probe into Trump.
According to the records at the time, the devices were wiped of information because of forgotten passcodes, irreparable screen damage, loss of the device, intentional deletion or other reasons before they could be reviewed.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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“In addition, Senator Grassley’s oversight exposed that during the FBI’s investigation of Secretary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information, the FBI agreed to destroy any records that were not turned over to the investigatory team and agreed to destroy laptops associated with Secretary Clinton’s staff,” Grassley and Johnson wrote.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DOJ spokesperson said, “This Justice Department follows the law, including our legal obligations regarding the preservation of Special Counsel records. We will continue to do so.”
