The question? Why did the FBI have a secure workspace at Perkins Coie? They’ve allegedly had it since 2012.
“Perkins Coie is responsible to the FBI for maintaining the Secure Work Environment,” the letter reportedly said.
Gaetz and Jordan are now demanding answers from the FBI. They’ve sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding an explanation.
“We have learned that since March 2012, the FBI approved and facilitated a Secure Work Environment at Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C. office, which continues to be operational,” the letter states. “In a letter dated May 25, 2022, the law firm confirmed and acknowledged the arrangement.”
The congressmen’s letter states that Michael Sussmann, the former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer who was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI, had access to the Secure Work Environment until some point in 2021 and had “limited supervised access thereafter.”
The FBI’s response to the question is interesting. They don’t mention Perkins Coie, but implicitly seem to be acknowledging there was such a workspace but appear to be trying to justify it.
“The FBI complies with the law and security policies and works with the Department of Justice to serve classified, Court-authorized legal process necessary to support national security investigations. In certain instances, the FBI coordinates with non-government, third-party entities, such as law firms, that represent service providers which receive these classified Court orders,” an FBI spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“This includes providing access to private attorneys which represent the service providers in satisfaction of their legal rights. As part of this, the FBI ensures that any storage of classified orders meets stringent security protocols required for such documents.”
Gaetz said they were demanding answers from Wray by June 15, and that there were serious questions that were raised by this relationship.
“Our concern is that politically motivated dirt was being converted into politically motivated investigations,” Gaetz said on Fox News. “That’s why Jim Jordan and I are making demands for answers on Christopher Wray immediately. And it’s my hope, certainly, that we shut this facility down.”
He wants any records related to the space, who had access to it, and why, not to mention when and how this workspace was approved.
Meanwhile, Perkins isn’t talking.
Congress needs to get a further explanation from Christopher Wray as to what this space was about and why it was at Perkins. If it’s about providing access to Perkins to review records, why isn’t that at the FBI and/or why they just aren’t providing the records? What other places do they have this at besides Perkins as their attempted explanation seems to imply that there are multiple other places? What access to FBI databases might have been given here? And who has had access to this space over the time it has been in operation? And if Sussmann was the contact — who was he working with at the FBI on this?
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/06/02/fbi-response-to-having-secure-workspace-at-perkins-coie-raises-more-questions-than-it-answers-n574005