Monday's release of a long-awaited watchdog report threw plenty of bones to partisans on both sides of the aisle
threw plenty of bones to partisans on both sides of the aisle. While the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, ripped the FBI‘s handling of applications for surveillance warrants on members of the Trump campaign, he also determined that the yearslong investigation into whether President Donald Trump or members of his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in his election had not been tainted by political bias and was adequately predicated.
Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer, was removed from the Russia investigation after uncovered text messages showed “hostility“ toward President Donald Trump. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo And while Strzok was “directly involved“ in the decision to investigate the Trump campaign, according to Horowitz, the watchdog found that “he was not the sole, or even the highest-level, decision maker“ in any of those matters.Less than two months after his inauguration in 2017, Trump lobbed the explosive allegation that former President Barack Obama had his “wires tapped“ at Trump Tower “just before the victory.
“Although the team also was interested in seeking FISA surveillance targeting Papadopoulos, the FBI [Office of General Counsel] attorneys were not supportive,” Horowitz wrote in the report. “FBI and [National Security Division] officials told us that the Crossfire Hurricane team ultimately did not seek FISA surveillance of Papadopoulos, and we are aware of no information indicating that the team requested or seriously considered FISA surveillance of Manafort or Flynn.
The inspector general found that although investigators had informants, or confidential human sources, “with either a connection to candidate Trump or a role in the Trump campaign,” and one of those sources provided the bureau with information about Page and Manafort, that informant was unaware of the ongoing investigation. Furthermore, Horowitz found, the information they provided was open-source — “[a]II over the Internet.
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