Senate committee chairs want William Barr to brief them on classified Clinton investigation material

The Republican chairmen of three Senate committees called Tuesday for Attorney General William P. Barr to brief them on classified material relating to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The three senators — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the finance committee, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who chairs Homeland Security and Government Affairs — wrote a letter to Mr. Barr demanding he provide additional details about classified material referenced in the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton probe.

Citing the inspector general report, the senators said the FBI sought to access the highly classified memo, which the bureau claimed was “necessary to complete the investigation.” But the memo was never sent to the Justice Department and the FBI closed the investigation and exonerated Ms. Clinton without reviewing it.

The letter did not provide additional details about the memo.

This is the third time GOP senators have requested the Justice Department brief them on the memo. The House Judiciary Committee asked for a briefing and the request was repeated in a September phone call with department officials. At the time, the Justice Department declined to discuss the memo, saying it would interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

But now that Mr. Mueller completed his 22-month investigation, the senators say there is no reason keep delaying the briefing.

“Now that the special counsel’s investigation has concluded, we are unaware of any legitimate basis upon which the department can refuse to answer the Judiciary Committee’s inquiries,” the senators wrote.