Grassley says FBI lacked evidence to target GOP over Jan.6 reconnaissance-tour claims

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released new documents Tuesday revealing weaknesses in a Biden-era FBI investigation into Republican lawmakers suspected of leading reconnaissance tours before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Known as “Operation Rampart Twelve,” the FBI’s undercover investigation obtained lawmakers’ phone records as part of the probe, despite text messages showing Justice Department prosecutors expressing concerns about the legal requirements to do so, new documents released by Mr. Grassley’s office show.

FBI headquarters then closed the investigation a year after it was launched, after failing to uncover credible evidence to support its case against Republican lawmakers.

Mr. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, released the documents at a hearing of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, alongside Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Mr. Grassley said the details of the Operation Rampart Twelve files were a preliminary investigation opened by the FBI’s Washington field office into Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Andy Biggs of Arizona, former Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama and possibly others.

Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans on the now-disbanded Jan. 6 Select Committee have been investigating Republican House lawmakers for conducting possible reconnaissance visits on Jan. 5, 2021, in preparation for the next day’s riot at the Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Biden’s 2020 election.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia, was among the lawmakers accused by Democrats of engaging in such activities.

“[Rampart Twelve] was based on allegations that Boebert and Gosar conducted reconnaissance missions before January 6,” Mr. Grassley said. “But what you will find in the available records is that the evidence to support the investigation did not exist.

Mr. Grassley mentioned JP Cooney, a longtime federal prosecutor and former member of Jack Smith’s special counsel’s office, who Mr. Grassley said “personally agreed with the opening of the investigation, even though his text messages told a different story.”

Text messages between Mr. Cooney and Molly Gaston, another former federal prosecutor who served as a top deputy to Mr. Smith in Mr. Trump’s criminal investigations, show that they questioned the credibility of the allegations before the investigation was opened.

On January 13, 2021, Ms. Gaston sent a message to Mr. Cooney: “Say for the sake of argument that we wanted to look at Lauren Boebert (I don’t think we do). »

Messages from January 16, 2021 show that Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston discussed video footage from the Capitol that appeared to contradict the allegations against Ms. Boebert.

Mr. Cooney: “They have Boebert on camera. »

Ms. Gaston: “? »

Mr. Cooney: “and near Sherrill [as in then-Representative and now-New Jersey Governor Sherrill, a Democrat].”

Mrs. Gaston: “But Boebert is not with others?

Mr. Cooney: “Good. But. There’s a group of MAGA hats about a minute behind her. But it’s a family with kids.”

Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston then discuss how the video appears to identify a tourist taking photos.

The messages continue:

Mrs. Gaston: “Sigh. »

Mr. Cooney: “It’s odd but it doesn’t seem suspicious. »

Mrs. Gaston: “ok. Well, that’s a shame.”

On February 3, 2021, Mr. Cooney sent an email to Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Timothy Thibault, informing him that Mr. Cooney agreed with the FBI opening the investigation. The file had already been opened on January 22, 2021.

“A few months after Rampart Twelve opened, based on available records, the FBI apparently had nothing to support the allegations against Boebert and Gosar,” Mr. Grassley said.

“Cooney, Gaston, [FBI agent Leanna] Saler and Thibault’s partisan and armed investigation would continue until it was closed by FBI headquarters on January 27, 2022, one year after it was opened,” he said.

In an email dated January 27, 2022, Mr. Thibault Ms. Saler, agent of the FBI’s public corruption unit: “the order from FBI headquarters is to close the case.”

Mr. Grassley also pointed to February 14, 2021 messages between Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston talking about the speech or debate clause and targeting Congressional toll records. The clause in the Constitution grants legislators absolute immunity from criminal prosecution or civil suit over “speech or debate” held in either chamber.

In the messages, Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston explain how they can get around statutory barriers Congress has put in place to obtain toll records from Congress.

Mr Cooney said: “I’m re-reading this statutory language, it’s ridiculous. »

He continued: “I think they are looking at record tolls. »

Ms Gaston later said: “I would prefer to start a dispute over the tolls first. »

“The conversation between these two – where they attempt to circumvent the law – raises more questions about secret efforts by Jack Smith, JP Cooney and Molly Gaston to obtain members’ toll records,” Mr Grassley said.

“And, more specifically, their intentional refusal to inform members of Congress and their lack of candor with the court. All of these documents, taken together, show that partisan prosecutors and FBI agents used questionable allegations to conduct political investigations against Republican members of Congress,” he said.

Mr. Cooney, who was fired from the Justice Department in February, is currently running for Congress in Virginia.