Grassley, Johnson Seek Declassification of All Crossfire Hurricane Records to Secure Lasting Transparency

WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are urging President Donald Trump to declassify all government records related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) weaponized Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Trump signed an Executive Order in March 2025 approving the declassification of Crossfire Hurricane materials. Yet, key governments emails, hundreds of transcripts from Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General interviews and a 400-page DOJ Inspection Division investigation report remain classified.

"We appreciate your strong efforts to bring transparency and accountability to Crossfire Hurricane and its related investigations. For approximately a decade, we've investigated Crossfire Hurricane and have sought possession of a wide array of government records to expose the facts and evidence once hidden from the American public. The more we've investigated the matter, the more information has come to light exposing the political rot that infected that operation from the get-go," the senators wrote.

"Your administration possesses a treasure trove of records that prove out weaponization against Republicans, including you and your family, which we've investigated for many years. These records need to see the light of day, consistent with your declassification Executive Order and the overriding public interest," the senators concluded.

Read the full letter HERE and below.

November 10, 2026

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable Donald J. Trump

President of the United States

The White House

Dear President Trump:

We appreciate your strong efforts to bring transparency and accountability to Crossfire Hurricane and its related investigations. For approximately a decade, we've investigated Crossfire Hurricane and have sought possession of a wide array of government records to expose the facts and evidence once hidden from the American public. The more we've investigated the matter, the more information has come to light exposing the political rot that infected that operation from the get-go. We write today about records that have yet to be declassified that should be based upon your declassification Executive Order and for public transparency.

First, on August 17, 2026, we wrote to the DOJ, FBI, and ODNI concerning a December 2019 email from Tony Riedlinger, then an FBI Section Chief, to FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka that contained a description as well as an attached document. The email and attachment, when read together, appear to corroborate existing public evidence that you were the target of a political hit and the basis of evidence that would lead a person to reasonably make that conclusion appears to have been known to the DOJ and FBI for some time. Yet, those agencies proceeded with weaponized investigations again you.

We've requested that the DOJ, FBI, and ODNI declassify the email and attachment to the fullest extent possible under the law, but that has yet to be done.

Second, the DOJ has produced an approximately 400-page DOJ Inspection Division investigation report related to Crossfire Hurricane but it too is classified. This report provides additional context separate from the Justice Department's Inspector General report on Crossfire Hurricane, including additional interviews with personnel involved in Crossfire Hurricane. The report also provides additional context about the questionable beginnings of Crossfire Hurricane that ought to be made known to the American people. Even though the approximately 400-page report was produced to our SCIF in classified form, it still contains redactions. After all these years of weaponization in Crossfire Hurricane, that document should be declassified for the public.

Finally, since 2023, we've requested from the Justice Department Inspector General the full set of the transcripts that office created as part of its investigation titled "Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation." The Inspector General at that time failed to produce those records. On March 17, 2025, we wrote to DOJ and FBI requesting that they work with the DOJ Office of the Inspector General to produce unredacted transcripts of interviews connected to that report. It is our understanding that during its review, the DOJ OIG interviewed more than 170 individuals and of those, 165 interviews were transcribed. To date, we have received 58 transcripts with redactions, two memoranda of investigation summarizing follow-up interactions after initial interviews, and one document labeled a memorandum of record also summarizing an interaction after an initial interview. The rest of the transcripts have yet to be produced with some still classified. We appreciate the new Inspector General and current DOJ and FBI leadership working to produce transcripts that previous leadership failed to produce. However, it's been years, and these records have taken too long to reach Congress and the public. We urge your administration to produce the rest in short order and without unnecessary redactions.

Your administration possesses a treasure trove of records that prove out weaponization against Republicans, including you and your family, which we've investigated for many years. These records need to see the light of day consistent with your declassification Executive Order and the overriding public interest.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

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