In a speech at the third night of the Republican National Convention, former Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell spotlighted the role Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden played in the investigation of the Trump campaign.
During his brief tenure as the acting chief of the DNI, Grenell declassified a number of crucial documents about the investigation of and spying on Trump-campaign associates. Grenell said that in his role he got to see the entire picture about the operation and said “what I saw made me sick to my stomach.”
“The Obama-Biden Administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign, and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it,” Grenell said. “They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges. Then they classified anything that undermined their case.”
Grenell highlighted that Biden personally requested the unmasking of the identity of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn three weeks before the inauguration. Biden’s name appeared in a document Grenell declassified which showed the former vice president’s name among a list of officials who unmasked Flynn during the transition period.
“And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the president-elect transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more,” Grenell said.
“But that’s the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks, and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who’s actually calling the shots,” he added. “But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge.”
Biden’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty earlier this month for forging an email as part of a process of preparing an application for a warrant to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith’s forged email resulted into one of 17 major errors and omissions found in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Applications (FISA) the FBI used to spy on Page.
Sally Yates, the former Department of Justice official who signed off on one of the FISA applications, spoke on the second night of the Democratic National Convention. She told Congress earlier this month that she would not have signed the application if she knew what she knows now.
“Public servants promise to defend our Constitution. Uphold our laws. And work on behalf of the American people. But from the moment President Trump took office, he has used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, trying to weaponize our Justice Department to attack his enemies and protect his friends,” Yates said.
