The Pompeo aide instructed officials to compile the records, instructing Secretary of State Lisa Kenna of the State Department, instructing recipients of the memo to ‘immediately search their files for any electronic or paper records that respond. at this request, to record emails, documents, spreadsheets, databases, and electronic media, etc. ”
Kenna specifically requested all communications in 2016 and 2017 between former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and any then-current State Department official centered on the Trump campaign as Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled a file of accusations against President Donald Trump. Kenna also asked for similar records from the same time period with communication between former Clinton colleagues Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer and any official thereafter at the State Department.
The memo also asks recipients to refer to Grassley and Johnson’s letter – which calls for more records on the Obama administration’s Ukraine policies, including whether funding against anti-corruption or support to Kiev may be “. abused “is – when considering document searches, noting that the department has already responded to some of the other senators’ requests related to Ukraine and the Bidens.
The memo, which has been flagged as “sensitive but not classified,” was issued because House Democrats are seeking information about the State Department’s level of compliance with GOP research. It also includes an ‘expiration date’ of August 28, around the time Johnson is expected to release public reports on his investigations.
A Johnson spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department also did not respond immediately. Taylor Foy, a Grassley spokeswoman, noted that the senators’ July 28 letter included in the memo is “largely a review of old polls to which they have not responded so far.”
“Obviously, getting answers to senators’ questions would be a welcome development,” Foy added. “Better late than never.”
House Democrats have lashed out at the State Department, accusing top officials there of collaborating with GOP probes while ignoring their requests for documents. She pointed to the department’s refusal to provide all documents to the House of Representatives during its impeachment inquiry last autumn, even as a series of high-level witnesses willingly and against the wishes of the administration testified about what they described as an attempt by Trump to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.
This time, the State Department made witnesses available to Republican investigators without the need for statements, including top Europe and official Eurasia George Kent, who sat for a deposit before Johnson’s panel earlier this month.
House Foreign Secretary Eliot Engel (DN.Y.) has filed a motion with the Department for copies of all documents provided to Johnson and Grassley, and on Monday he reprimanded Pompeo for ignoring the request.
“I am deeply concerned about what appears to be a partisan misuse of Department of State resources to assist Republicans in the House of Representatives in a political smashing of Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden,” Engel wrote at the time.
Kenna, who was nominated for the US Ambassador to Peru, was a key figure in Trump’s Second Chamber, and acted as a gatekeeper for Pompeo during critical outreach of Trump allies visiting the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch , to discredit. Kenna told a panel of the House of Representatives during her confirmation hearing this month that she found some of that outcome, including from Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, “deeply disturbing.”
Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, and Grassley, who chairs the Finance Committee, are facing intense scrutiny by Democrats who have claimed that GOP senators abuse of power to direct the president’s political opponents. They have also accused Johnson in particular of using Russian disinformation to denigrate Biden.
Johnson vehemently denied that claim, but last week he said his investigations “would certainly help Donald Trump win re-election and certainly want, I would say, evidence of not voting for Vice President Biden.”
Earlier this year, the Homeland Security Johnson Committee gave Johnson a broad authority to comment on a report by former Obama administration officials in connection with the panel’s investigation into the origins of the Russian probe and the White House’s deal with the Obama on the presidential transition period.
