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Grassley Presses FBI on Parkland Shooting After Months without Completion of Planned Report

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grassley.senate.gov/news/news-rele…

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley today sought a briefing and final report detailing any internal failures at the FBI that could have prevented the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Grassley also made the following comment.

“If we want to prevent future tragedy, we must have an understanding of what mistakes may have led to the shooting in Parkland. Six months ago 14 students and 3 staff members were killed.

Half a year has gone by, but we have no report and no precise accounting of the events leading up to that fatal event.

The men and women at the FBI work daily to protect Americans across the country. We can’t let bureaucratic foot-dragging get in their way. We need to fully understand what happened.”

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Grassley outlines the months-long back-and-forth over the Parkland report and the FBI’s lack of responsiveness to his inquiries.

Grassley asks that, by September 14, 2018, Deputy Director Bowdich appear for a briefing before the Senate Judiciary Committee and that the FBI provide the final report no less than 48 hours before that briefing.

Full text of Grassley’s letter follows.

August 27, 2018

The Honorable Christopher Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dear Director Wray:

On February 23, 2018, Deputy Director Bowdich briefed the Committee regarding the Parkland shooting.

In that briefing, and at the Committee’s March 14, 2018, Parkland hearing, Mr. Bowdich said that the FBI had begun a review of the internal process failures relating to, among other things, the intake procedure for call-in tips and what transpired in the Parkland case.

Since then, Committee staff have, on numerous occasions, asked for updates regarding that report and in May 2018 they were told it would be final by approximately mid-June.

On May 30, 2018, your staff offered Mr. Bowdich to provide a follow-up briefing, presumably to discuss the report, to be scheduled for mid-June. A few days later, your staff informed the Committee that this briefing would have to be rescheduled & that the report was not available

Since then, Committee staff have requested a copy of the report seven times from the FBI—insisting that for a briefing to be meaningful the report must be complete—but the FBI has still not provided us with a date by which we can expect the report.[1]

On July 18, 2018, the FBI emailed Committee staff to inform them that Mr. Bowdich could brief the Committee, but the report would be unavailable beforehand. Committee staff then asked why, to which the FBI has thus far failed to respond-not even offering a timeline for the report

Committee staff even sought the assistance of legislative affairs staff at the Department of Justice. Committee staff were told that the FBI could provide a briefing, but there was no timeline for the report’s completion.

This is unacceptable. It has been six months since the Parkland shooting, and the FBI still has not produced a report accounting for its actions or failure to act, as the case may be. This report is a necessary prerequisite to any meaningful briefing.

Furthermore, the FBI’s failure to timely and professionally respond to Committee inquiries regarding a publically-announced, forthcoming report illustrates a complete disregard of the Committee’s oversight responsibilities.

No later than September 14, 2018, the Committee requests that Mr. Bowdich appear for a briefing and that a copy of the report be provided no less than 48 hours before.

In addition, please explain why your congressional affairs staff have failed to adequately answer legitimate inquiries over a period of months regarding the production of the report to the Committee.

Sincerely Yours,

Charles E. Grassley
Chairman

[1] May 31, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; June 4, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; June 8, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; June 26, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; July 2, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; July 12, 2018 email to Chris McDonough; August 2, 2018 email to Chris McDonough.