The Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), wants more details about all of the wiped cell phones from the investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The probe into Trump-Russia collusion concluded nobody from the Trump campaign, nor any American, colluded with Russia.
An Inspector General investigation and other investigations found broad misconduct and alleged crimes on the part of government agents who headed up the investigation of the Trump campaign.
New documents obtained by Judicial Watch indicate the phones of 15 members of Mueller's investigative team happened to have been wiped before they could be examined for evidence of misconduct or crimes.
There is no evidence anybody investigated the mysterious or coincidental disappearance, destruction or loss of potential evidence.
It's unclear whether the "15" counts the wiping of two phones we already knew about: those belonging to alleged FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who were quietly removed from the Mueller team when the Inspector General learned of their vehemently anti-Trump messages, including their promises to keep Trump from getting elected, and discussions about an "insurance policy" in case Trump managed to get elected, anyway.
Sen. Johnson has asked Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate details of the 15 phone wipes. Reasons given so far for the wiped phones include: "forgotten passwords, screen damage, deletion, and device misplacement."
Read the full letter below:
September 11, 2020
The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Inspector General Horowitz:
According to recent reports, cell phones belonging to “multiple people on then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team were ‘wiped’ for various reasons during [the Russia investigation].” Records indicate that at least 15 phones were wiped for various reasons including, forgotten passwords, screen damage, deletion, and device misplacement. According to one article, these incidents occurred “before the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) could review the devices.”
These reports are troubling and raise concerns about record retention and transparency. Therefore, I respectfully request that your office open an investigation into this matter to determine what, why, and how information was wiped, whether any wrongdoing occurred, and who these devices belonged to.
Further, I request you provide the following information:
1. When and how was your office made aware of this matter?
2. What, if any, steps did your office take to confirm whether information on these phones had been wiped?
3. Did these phones have text message capabilities?
4. Does your office have the capability to retrieve the information from these phones?
Please provide responses to these questions as soon as possible but no later than September 18, 2020.
Thank you in advance for your assistance on this matter...
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
Chairman
cc: The Honorable Gary Peters
Ranking Member
The Honorable William P. Barr
Attorney General
The Honorable Christopher A. Wray
Director
I can imagine much table pounding, firm talk and finger pointing. Then....nothing.
Mueller was a bad pick 19 years ago. One of many Bush bad "accomplishments"!
These guys think they're so clever. It's obvious they're a bunch of scoundrels. How disgusting. Now they're going to PRETEND there's nothing that can be done to retrieve the lost data. Hogwash. It's there somewhere in "The Cloud"....and there's someone out there that knows how to get to it.