Barr, Durham Rebut Report by DOJ Inspector General
WASHINGTON (SBG) — U.S. Attorney General William Barr and a top federal prosecutor took direct aim at the work of the Justice Department's inspector general on Monday, issuing rare statements that challenged the inspector general's finding that the Trump-Russia probe launched by the FBI during the 2016 election was proper and based on credible suspicions of collusion between the president's campaign and the Kremlin.
That finding was contained in the report released earlier Monday by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, entitled "Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation." Horowitz spent some 21 months reviewing the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, that was eventually taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. As part of the Crossfire Hurricane probe, the FBI sought and received FISA surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, in October 2016. The inspector general concluded that while some FBI officials withheld from the FISA court "information [that] was inconsistent with, or undercut, the assertions contained in the FISA applications that were used to support probable cause," the overall investigation into possible collusion between the campaign and the Russian government was "authorized...with sufficient factual predication."
But Attorney General Barr, while thanking Horowitz for his work, rebutted his central finding -- and so with unusual bluntness.
"The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken," Barr said in his statement. "From its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration. In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source."
Also issuing a statement countering Horowitz's report was John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut who was tapped by Barr in April to conduct a criminal investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. Unlike Horowitz, Durham has enjoyed subpoena power and can compel testimony from individuals outside of DOJ.
"Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.," Durham said, in a statement that was also unusual for its tone and the fact that it was issued at all. "Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”
VIDEO: Watch James's report on A.G. Barr defending John Durham
The statements from Barr and Durham indicate that the Justice Department could bring criminal charges against some individuals connected to the opening, and conduct, of the Crossfire Hurricane probe. Horowitz did so for only one individual: a former FBI attorney accused of altering a document in connection with the FISA surveillance on Page. That individual left the bureau and has so far not been charged with a crime.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Cabinet Room ahead of an event on education policy, termed the conduct described in the Horowitz report " a disgrace." "It's everything that a lot of people thought it would be except far worse," he said. Mr. Trump and his supporters have long alleged that the Crossfire Hurricane probe was launched by opponents of his campaign who were ensconced in high levels at the Justice Department and FBI, members of a so-called Deep State conspiracy aimed at preventing him from winning the 2016 election, or, if he did, surviving in office as president. Private text messages exchanged in 2016 between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, senior FBI personnel working the Trump-Russia case at the time, showed that they vowed to "stop" Mr. Trump from prevailing over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and had begun preparing an "insurance policy" for his assumption of power in the White House.
VIDEO: Sen. Graham predicts the Horowitz Report will be "ugly and damning"
Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., greeted the Horowitz report far differently. He said it dispels claims of a Deep State cabal operating in secret to thwart the will of the electorate. "This report debunks the baseless conspiracy [theory] that the investigation into Mr. Trump's campaign and its ties to Russia originated with political bias," Schumer said. "This report confirms that the predicate for the FBI's investigation was valid."
Nonetheless, Horowitz found an extensive set of problems with the FISA applications relating to Carter Page, a foreign policy expert with connections to prominent figures in Moscow. According to the inspector general, FBI case agents and their supervisors "did not give appropriate attention to facts that cut against probable cause" to place Page under surveillance, and never amended their filings "even as the FBI gathered information that weakened the assessment of probable cause and made the FISA applications less accurate.” Horowitz concluded that DOJ's "decision makers and the court should have been given complete and accurate information so that they could meaningfully evaluate probable cause before authorizing the surveillance of a U.S. person associated with a presidential campaign. That did not occur."
Barr testified in April that "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign. sinclair has confirmed that Durham's probe has expanded beyond the Trump-Russia probe to include the Obama administration's development of an intelligence assessment, issued in January 2017, that found the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 election was intended to help the Trump campaign.