WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director James Comey to renew their request that the agency release materials related to the investigation of individuals and companies referred by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) to the Department of Justice (DOJ).  The letter comes following the FBI's release on Friday of additional documents related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email use.

"On Friday, September 23, you released dozens more pages of documents and emails related to the Clinton investigation. The major revelation from these documents appears to be that Secretary Clinton once spilled coffee on a Blackberry," the Members of Congress wrote in today's letter.

"Your decision to release additional material related to Secretary Clinton - and to spend scarce agency time and resources in doing so - makes it all the more urgent that you release materials related to the 2008 financial crisis."

"When you released the Clinton materials, you said the new standard for releasing materials related to a decision not to prosecute was ‘intense public interest,' and we can think of no issue of more ‘intense public interest' than the wrongdoing on Wall Street - the misdeeds that cost millions of Americans their savings and their homes. We ask that giant Wall Street corporations and their CEOs receive no special favors of secrecy from the FBI."

Congressman Pascrell and Senator Warren both have previously called on Director Comey to release the materials related to the FCIC referrals. The initial letter from Congressman Pascrell is available here, and the initial letter from Senator Warren is available here.

The FBI has not responded to these earlier requests. Read a PDF copy of today's follow-up letter to Director Comey here. Text of the letter is below.

The Honorable James Comey
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20535

Dear Director Comey:

We wrote to you earlier this month to ask that you promptly facilitate the release of any and all materials related to the FBI's investigations and prosecutorial decisions regarding referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) made as part of the FCIC's investigation of the causes of the financial crisis. Your office has not responded to these requests.

We made these requests based on the precedent you established in your recent actions in the investigation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On July 5, 2016, you announced that the FBI would not be recommending prosecution of Secretary Clinton for actions related to the email system used during her service. For decades, FBI precedent in these cases has been to make no further information public. In this case, however, citing "intense public interest" and "the interest of transparency," you delivered a 2,300-word statement that included previously undisclosed information about the case and your decision, provided extensive testimony to Congress, and released hundreds of pages of documents.

On Friday, September 23, you released dozens more pages of documents and emails related to the Clinton investigation. The major revelation from these documents appears to be that Secretary Clinton once spilled coffee on a Blackberry.

Your decision to release additional material related to Secretary Clinton - and to spend scarce agency time and resources in doing so - makes it all the more urgent that you release materials related to the 2008 financial crisis. When you released the Clinton materials, you said the new standard for releasing materials related to a decision not to prosecute was "intense public interest," and we can think of no issue of more "intense public interest" than the wrongdoing on Wall Street - the misdeeds that cost millions of Americans their savings and their homes. We ask that giant Wall Street corporations and their CEOs receive no special favors of secrecy from the FBI.

We are disappointed that you have yet to respond to our earlier requests, and again ask that you release the FBI files related to the investigation of the financial crisis as expeditiously as possible. We also ask that you provide our staff with a briefing on this matter, no later than October 11, 2016. Please contact Brian Cohen of Sen. Warren's office or Elaina Houser with Rep. Pascrell's office to arrange this briefing.

Sincerely,