Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Thursday called on Sen. Ron Johnson to turn over information about an unnamed informant that the Wisconsin Republican claims told him about secret “off-site” meetings of FBI officials.
McCaskill sent a letter to Johnson, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, demanding “all information and documents” related to his investigation into bias and possible conspiracy at the FBI after he made “serious and damaging allegations” about the agency on television.
“As a former prosecutor I understand fully the power of allegations in the public domain,” McCaskill wrote. “You have now made serious and damaging allegations. I would assume that you would never make those kinds of allegations without serious and substantial hard evidence.”
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Her letter comes as some Republicans raise concerns about potential bias against President Trump within the ranks of the FBI, with some floating the notion in recent days that FBI and Justice Department officials may have formed a clandestine group that held meetings in which they plotted to undercut Trump.
That notion stems from text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI officials who have come under scrutiny in recent months for harboring what some Republicans have deemed an anti-Trump bias.
One of those text messages makes reference to a “secret society.” While the message has been presented without context, Republicans have seized on it to question whether FBI agents actively worked to undermine Trump.
Johnson stoked speculation on Tuesday when he said on Fox News that he had heard from an informant that FBI and Justice Department officials had held “off-site” meetings, though he later acknowledged that he did not what those alleged gatherings were about.
But McCaskill said that Johnson had not shared any information from or about the informant with Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. McCaskill serves as the top Democrat on that panel.
“If the Committee has any evidence that the FBI is, as you have stated, biased and corrupt at the highest levels, I assume that evidence is strong in both quality and quantity, and extends far beyond a casual mention in a text message between two agents who were involved in personal crosstalk,” McCaskill wrote.