Top GOP investigator presses DOJ and FBI on Mueller team phones being 'wiped' before watchdog review
A top Republican investigator is demanding answers after at least two dozen phones belonging to members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team were “wiped” of their data before Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigators could review them. “It appears that Special Counsel Mueller’s team may have deleted federal records that could be key to better understanding their decision-making process as they pursued their investigation and wrote their report,” Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa wrote to the Justice Department and the FBI on Friday. “Indeed, many officials apparently deleted the records after the DOJ Inspector General began his inquiry into how the Department mishandled Crossfire Hurricane. Moreover, based on this new information, the number of times and the stated reasons for the deletions calls into question whether or not it was a widespread intentional effort.” The revelation was contained within 87 pages of partially redacted Justice Department records released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group. Many of the names are concealed, but the records show that Andrew Weissmann, a key prosecutor on the Mueller team who has gone on to become an MSNBC legal analyst, said he accidentally wiped the data from his government-issued phones two separate times. Notes from March 3, 2018, noted that he “entered password too many times and wiped his phone,” and notes on Sept. 27, 2018, indicated that he “accidentally wiped cell phone — data lost.”
The DOJ notes from May 30, 2018, state that the phone belonging to Greg Andres, an assistant special counsel, “was wiped due to a forgotten passcode, not clear on the exact date.” Records from Nov. 27, 2018, also said the device belonging to Mueller prosecutor Kyle Freeny “was accidentally wiped prior to records review.” In addition, the documents revealed that Mueller attorney L. Rush Atkinson’s phone “was wiped on 11/29/2018 by accident after input of passcode too many times.” The records show that on April 24, 2018, DOJ investigators wrote that the phone belonging to James Quarles, an assistant special counsel on the team, “wiped itself without intervention from him,” and he “emailed confirming he did not use text and had no work related or other photos on his device prior to it being wiped.” Many of the other names are redacted but show many similar instances with the Mueller team member phones: “in airplane mode, no passcode provided, data unable to be recovered, so had to be wiped,” “employee tried to incorrect enter password too many times, and the phone was wiped of all data,” “forgot password to phone and the phone reset itself,” “phone was wiped due to a forgotten passcode to the phone,” “phone was wiped prior to review because phone was in airplane mode and the passcode was not provided — therefore the phone had to be restored to factory settings without review,” “phone was accidentally wiped prior to records review,” “phone was accidentally wiped via password input,” and “had to be wiped due to incorrect password." The Justice Department declined the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/top-gop-investigator-presses-doj-and-fbi-on-mueller-team-phones-being-wiped-before-watchdog-review
Grassley letter:
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09-11%20CEG%20to%20DOJ%20FBI%20%28Special%20Counsel%20Records%29.pdf