Today’s release of the FBI’s long-withheld handwritten notes confirms what my family, my attorneys, and millions of Americans have known for years: the federal government’s case against me was manufactured. These are the FBI’s own contemporaneous records of my January 24, 2017, interview. When compared with the official FD-302 report entered into the FBI system more than twenty days later, the discrepancies are unmistakable.
On the central question involving my conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Agent Joe Pientka’s handwritten notes record my response as: “Not really. I don’t remember. Hey don’t do anything.” The later FD-302 changed that response to: “Not really. I don’t remember. It wasn’t, ‘Don’t do anything.”
Those are not equivalent statements. The insertion of the words “It wasn’t” transformed an uncertain recollection into a denial, the very denial prosecutors later used to accuse me of lying.
The same pattern appears elsewhere. Peter Strzok’s handwritten notes state that when I was asked whether I made four or five calls that day, I responded: “If so, don’t remember. If so, lousy place to make phone calls.” The FD-302 later stated that I “remembered making four to five calls that day.” Once again, uncertainty was converted into certainty. My actual words were replaced with a materially different account.
This did not occur in isolation. The FBI had already investigated me and found no derogatory information establishing that I had committed a crime or posed a national security threat. Agents were preparing to close the investigation known as Crossfire Razor when Peter Strzok intervened and stopped its closure.
Senior FBI official William Priestap wrote notes questioning whether the bureau’s objective was to obtain the truth or to “get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.” The agents who sat across from me reported that I appeared truthful. Yet the interview report was subsequently edited by Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, who was not present for the interview. Strzok later wrote that he was trying not to “completely re-write” the report. Now we can see why those edits mattered.
I served this nation for more than thirty-three years, including nearly five years in combat. I led soldiers and intelligence professionals under circumstances where accuracy, integrity, and accountability could mean the difference between life and death. What happened in my case violated every one of those principles.
This abuse did not end with me. It damaged my family, undermined a duly elected president, corrupted public confidence in federal law enforcement, and sent a chilling message to every American who might someday find himself in the government’s crosshairs.
I thank President Donald J. Trump and his administration for making these records available to the American people. President Trump has continued to demand the declassification of Crossfire Hurricane materials and the release of information that the public should have received years ago. His commitment to transparency has brought us closer to the full truth.
Transparency must be followed by accountability. Every remaining document must be released. Every person involved must be placed under oath. Every material alteration, omission, leak, and concealment must be investigated. If the evidence establishes that federal laws were violated, those responsible must be prosecuted regardless of title, position, or political affiliation.
No federal official should possess the power to rewrite an interview, conceal evidence, destroy a person’s reputation, and escape accountability. A government that demands obedience to the law must also obey the law.
The American people now have more of the truth. They deserve the rest of it. Accountability must follow, and it must begin now.
