Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said that his decision to declassify numerous documents related to the Russia investigation came from a place of wanting to be transparent with the American people because “transparency is never political.”
“The Russian investigation had all sorts of red flags from the beginning,” Grenell told Fox News on Sunday. “And when you look at the transcripts, when you look at the declassified footnotes from some of the investigations, it’s clear that there were multiple people from multiple agencies that were raising red flags.”
“However, what was really sad to me is that those red flags and those voices were pushed aside, classified, and never shown to the public. And so very few people knew the truth. And the silence from those people was really shocking,” Grenell continued. “And so what I wanted to do was be transparent. Transparency is never political. Transparency is what the American people demand. And it’s what Washington, D.C., is very uncomfortable with.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
MARIA BARTIROMO, SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES ANCHOR: My next guest did more to expose government corruption than most Washington insiders have done in years.
Ric Grenell, as acting director of national security, declassified 53 important witness transcripts that told us so much about the origins of the Russia probe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD GRENELL, FORMER ACTING U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The Russian investigation had all sorts of red flags from the beginning.
And when you look at the transcripts, when you look at the declassified footnotes from some of the investigations, it’s clear, Maria, that there were multiple people from multiple agencies that were raising red flags.
However, what was really sad to me is that those red flags and those voices were pushed aside, classified, and never shown to the public. And so very few people knew the truth. And the silence from those people was really shocking.
And so what I wanted to do was be transparent. Transparency is never political. Transparency is what the American people demand. And it’s what Washington, D.C., is very uncomfortable with.
BARTIROMO: I remember a text that Peter Strzok sent to his then girlfriend Lisa Page, and he says: “Our sisters are leaking like mad,” our sisters being the CIA.
We had Ron Johnson on the other day, a couple weeks ago here on this program, and his investigation is centering on the transition of power from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. And during that transition, when Trump was fully in place, there were 125 leaks during the first 126 days of the administration.
When you compare that to the Obama first 126 days, there were eight leaks, eight, vs. 125. Bush, nine leaks vs. 125. Leaking classified data is a felony, right?
GRENELL: Totally.
And Senator Ron Johnson is doing a really great job. So is Senator Grassley. They are really focused on trying to get to the truth.
I think that transition period is key. And it’s why, once Donald Trump won the election in 2016, all the way through to Inauguration Day, that period of time is when we know who is coming into the White House. We know the team, like General Flynn and his team and President Trump, that’s when we’re supposed to have the Obama administration or the current administration begin to hand off and have a transition time.
That’s why we have an election in November and an inauguration in January. It’s for a peaceful transition of power. That was blown by the Obama administration. And I just don’t think that unmasking during the transition period is appropriate, especially at the levels that they did.
And we even had Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States at the time, unmasking in this transition period. And I believe it was in January, when they literally were on the downslope to Trump’s inauguration.
This is inappropriate. I think you can make the argument for unmasking at other times. But to unmask during this transition period, to me, is another level. And it really shows how the beginning of the excuse of why Hillary Clinton lost, how this was developed.
They were so shocked that Donald Trump won that it must have not have been because the American people just freely chose Donald Trump, but because of some other thing.
And, remember, we had 67 Democrats refuse to come to the inauguration, the peaceful transition of power.
BARTIROMO: That’s right.
GRENELL: You know, Maria, if that would have happened in another country, the State Department would have called it out and said, this is unacceptable.
BARTIROMO: Right, which is why I think people are not going to trust the FBI or the top of the CIA until they see accountability.
GRENELL: Look, what I will say is, is, I really encourage people to read the footnotes.
When you read these footnotes, you clearly see that the intelligence community, not just the FBI, but multiple agencies, knew that the charges were flimsy or that the Russians from the very beginning were wreaking havoc on the process by pushing propaganda into the Steele dossier.
People knew this, Maria. There were red flags from the very beginning. And those voices within the intelligence community were pushed aside or classified, or both, and most people never saw the warning signs. And that’s exactly the problem, I think, that we have to drop back and solve.
BARTIROMO: Do you believe there is a deep state?
GRENELL: Look, I think that what I would say is, is that there are incredible public servants within the intelligence community who themselves are really annoyed by the bad apples.
There’s no question that we have specific people, and it’s more than just a few, who are in jobs, using their political bias to manipulate the process. There’s no question of that. And it happens on both sides of the aisle.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
You dealt with these guys. You dealt with Adam Schiff a lot. And you were trying to be transparent and declassify this stuff. But he stopped you, right?
I remember interviewing Nunes and Ratcliffe. They had sent letters to Adam Schiff, saying, we want this and we want that. We sent a letter to the FBI. We want these documents. They were not releasing them.
GRENELL: That was a process that I couldn’t believe was stopped.
To be honest, it shouldn’t have been. It should have been released a long time ago. It was overclassified. And our country suffered because it was overclassified.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
GRENELL: I will say, when dealing with the Hill, somebody like Senator Mark Warner, who I had a phone call scheduled to walk him through the reform efforts that I was going to do, and he canceled that phone call, and then refused to schedule the call.
So I never spoke to him the entire time that I was there, even though he was the lead Senate Democrat on the intelligence community. Never spoke to him. Tried several times.
But then I would see him go public and say that: Grenell is not coordinating with me. Grenell is not coordinating with the appropriate committees. And they would slam me.
Look, this is the ways of Washington, is that they say one thing and they do another. The American people are really outraged by this type of stuff.
BARTIROMO: They really are.
GRENELL: I stayed silent and tried to just take the hits.
But the fact of the matter is, I think that it’s wrong.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
As we wrap up here, John Ratcliffe is your successor as the director of national intelligence. Are there other things that should be declassified that Congressman Ratcliffe is going to be overseeing?
What’s most important that we don’t know yet, Ric?
GRENELL: Look, I think that this entire Russian investigation, the beginning of it, how it was developed needs to — somebody needs to look at what is classified and whether or not that needs to come clean.
We started that process. I have coordinated with John. He’s a great guy. He’s really focused and smart on getting to the truth. He’s removing politics from the equation, and just looking at the facts and what needs to be done.
So, I have great faith in our new director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe.
BARTIROMO: We so appreciate your work for this country, Ric. Thank you sir.
GRENELL: Thanks, Maria.
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