The Iowa Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday the FBI is keeping a "vice grip" on what information can be shared publicly about its probe into the Democratic presidential nominee.

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"The FBI improperly bundled these unclassified reports with a small amount of classified information, and told the Senate to treat it all as if it were classified," Grassley said, adding that Americans have "only a very narrow slice of the facts."

Grassley's comments on the Senate floor come after he sent a letter last month formally requesting that the Senate’s security director provide unclassified portions of the FBI files to his committee’s staff. The request could undercut restrictions placed on the materials by the FBI, which has tried to limit who has access to the files.

He added Monday that while FBI has instructed the Senate to not separate the classified and unclassified information, the bureau should have negotiated restrictions with his committee beforehand.

"The executive branch cannot 'instruct' a legislative branch office to keep information from the public unless the legislative branch agrees or there is a legal basis for keeping the information secret," Grassley said.

The FBI released a summary of its investigation and a report on the Clinton interview last month. GOP lawmakers, however, have said the summary raises more questions and Grassley said Monday that it is "misleading or inaccurate in some key details."