GOP Wants DOJ Watchdog to Produce Unredacted Records Related to Trump–Russia Election Ties

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 06: Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) questions Chad Wolf, acting Secretary of Homeland Security, appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on August 6, 2020 in Washington D.C. The committee held a hearing on “Oversight of DHS Personnel Deployments to Recent Protests." Photo by Toni Sandys-Pool/Getty Images

Republican senators have written a letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) asking for uncensored records related to the agency’s review of the FBI probe into alleged Trump–Russia election links.

The April 25 letter (pdf) by Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) concerns the 460 pages of “heavily redacted records” that the nonprofit Citizens United recently obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The DOJ’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) delivered these records to Citizens United in response to the nonprofit’s request for interview transcripts linked to the department’s review of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.