Exiting DNI Grenell reminds furious Democrats: 'You lied'

FPI / June 1, 2020

In his short but notable tenure as chief of U.S. intelligence, Richard Grenell engaged in a Russia investigation transparency campaign which caught Democrats in a cascade of lies.

As he was departing as acting Director of National Intelligence, some of those same Democrats sought to disparage Grenell.

Among the many documents and congressional testimony Grenell paved the way to have declassified was testimony in the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. None of the witnesses said they saw any evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

Grenell forced House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff to release the 2017-18 witness transcripts. Grenell said he would release them if Schiff, who chairs the committee, did not.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the committee which led the impeachment against President Donald Trump, was exposed as a serial liar by Grenell's transparency campaign.

Swalwell targeted Grenell in a Thursday tweet, saying: “This is so comical. The Republicans led the Russia investigation, which ended in March 2018. They chose to not release the transcripts. What on earth are you talking about? I’m worried about you. Lay off the Trump Kool-Aid. You’ve had too much.”

Grenell responded: “I’m talking about how you lied to the American people over and over again. You said publicly you saw lots of Russian collusion. But the many Republicans and Democrats you questioned under oath all said they saw NO COLLUSION. You knew what they said in private. You lied.”

Daniel Goldman, a committee impeachment counsel, also attacked Grenell, tweeting: “Sad to see that @richardgrenell has assumed the same kind of deceptive and deficient logic that @RepRatcliffe used during impeachment. If any individual *fact* witness does not or cannot assert a *legal* conclusion, that does not mean that that legal conclusion cannot be found.”

Grenell responded: “I’m being deceptive?! I’m for transparency. You DC types hide the details from the American people and then go on TV and say something they can’t check. It’s the DC way. And it usually works - until Americans see the details (i.e. the hidden transcripts).”

Goldman is often cited by conservatives as the Trump critic who fully accepted allegations in the Christopher Steele dossier as late as December 2018. Two federal investigations in 2019 concluded the dossier was inaccurate. No claims against Trump aides was confirmed.

On Michael Flynn’s intercepted calls in December 2016 when Flynn served on the Trump transition team, Swalwell said, “Tick tock. Those are coming. Well, you’re no longer director and the Flynn tapes never came. All you have to show for your work is the dirt on your boots from shoveling and burying evidence for @realDonaldTrump.”

Grenell responded: “They are coming. There’s a thoughtful process to transparency. For years you went on TV spreading the Russian propaganda - knowing the entire time that not one single person under oath from your committee saw any collusion. Not one. It’s shameful!”

Grenell, who stepped aside with the swearing in of former Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe as chief of intelligence last week, also declassified footnotes in the FBI wiretap abuse report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough noted that the new information "showed that intelligence services warned the FBI in early 2017 that the dossier on which the bureau relied heavily was likely Kremlin disinformation. The footnotes said that Russian intelligence knew of Steele’s project, financed by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton campaign, the moment he started collecting anti-Trump material in the summer of 2016.

"The FBI continued to use the dossier well into 2017 to obtain wiretaps on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page and to guide the investigation into other Republicans."

Free Press International