Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley have sent a letter to former National Security Adviser under President Obama, Susan Rice, asking her to explain an email she sent to herself on the last day of the Obama administration and a day before President Trump was to be inaugurated.
The email, which Rice sent to herself, documents a meeting that took place some two weeks before, on January 5, in the Oval Office, between President Obama, former FBI Director James Comey, Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former Vice President Biden, and Rice. In the email, Rice says that Obama stressed his continued commitment to making sure that the investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 election was done “by the book.”
She also wrote that former President Obama wanted to determine whether there was any reason to believe that information gleaned from the investigation could not be shared with the incoming Trump administration.
“From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia,” Rice wrote.
Graham and Grassley have asked Rice to explain what she meant by “by the book.” They also ask her to explain the reason for sending the email to herself. “It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation,” Graham and Grassley write.
Republican members of Congress have raised questions about the FBI’s conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation, as well as the Hillary Clinton email investigation in recent months. An inspector general’s report into possible FBI misconduct in the Clinton email scandal is expected in March or April of this year. Graham and Grassley have asked Rice to respond to their letter by February 22.