Horowitz says no bias, but lots of errors in FBI probe of Trump campaign

WASHINGTON — Justice Department watchdog Michael Horowitz told a Senate committee Wednesday that the FBI made so many basic and fundamental errors in its investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia in 2016 that it infringed on the civil liberties of a Trump campaign aide.

Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that while serious lapses occurred, the investigation documented in his report showed that the FBI did have a legitimate reason to open the investigation and that there was no evidence of political motives or bias behind it.

But Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the errors and abuse of power were so grave that “it’s as if J. Edgar Hoover came back to life.”

Graham’s reference to the infamous former FBI director was intended to portray the investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign as a major overstep by the FBI.

Whether or not you like the president, Graham said, Trump’s time will come and go, “but I hope we understand that what happened here can never happen again.”

‘No deep state’

Democrats on the committee seized on the Horowitz report and the finding that there was no political bias behind the investigation, a key allegation repeated by Trump to discredit the probe.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said Trump has alleged a deep state in the FBI is targeting him with an investigation he calls a witch hunt into ties between his campaign and Russians.

“There is no deep state,” Feinstein said, referring to Horowitz and his 434-page report.

Even Graham dispelled a conspiracy pushed by Trump and his allies that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled with the 2016 election, a theory debunked by U.S. intelligence agencies.

“It wasn’t the Ukrainians. It was the Russians,” Graham said.

The probe was launched by Bill Priestap, the FBI Counterintelligence Division assistant director, after a source with a foreign government said Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopoulos received information from Russia that was damaging to President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Priestap opened the investigation dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane,” a lyric in the Rolling Stones song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” after consulting with other senior FBI officials, the inspector general found.

“We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that indicated political bias or improper motivation influencing his decision to open the investigation,” Horowitz said.

But the inspector general said 17 mistakes were made by the intelligence agency when it sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant from a special court, and extensions of that warrant targeting Trump campaign aide Carter Page, a U.S. citizen.

Relying on Steele ‘dossier’

Horowitz said the FBI relied on information in a “dossier” on Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele that department lawyers considered questionable.

FBI leaders relied on the dossier to seek a FISA warrant even after concerns were raised that Steele “may have been hired by a rival candidate or campaign,” Horowitz said.

Steele’s firm, Fusion GPS, was hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Steele gave the dossier to the FBI in Rome.

Horowtiz said use of the information to get FISA warrants “reflects a failure not just by those who prepared the FISA applications, but also by the managers and supervisors in the Crossfire Hurricane chain of command, including FBI senior officials who were briefed as the investigation progressed.”

An even more egregious mistake occurred, Horowitz said, when an FBI lawyer changed an email that identified Page as a source of the CIA.

“Carter Page was a CIA source. An FBI lawyer was told that in an email and doctored that email to make it seem like he was not a source,” Horowitz said. “The FISA court was never told this potentially exculpatory information.”

Bad comedy

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, likened the scenario to something out of the “Beavis and Butthead” animated comedy animation TV show that ran on MTV from 1993 to 1997.

Horowitz concluded that the “Crossfire Hurricane team failed to comply with FBI policies, and in so doing fell short of what is rightly expected from a premier law enforcement agency entrusted with such an intrusive surveillance tool.’’

Horowitz released his report earlier this week.

It prompted FBI Director William Christopher Wray to announce the implementation of 40 corrective measures.

Wray willingly accepted the critical report of his agency, and in doing so was attacked by Trump who was clearly unnerved by the finding that there was no political bias in conducting the investigation.

No conspiracy

Trump has alleged a deep state conspiracy against him, using messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page that contain anti-Trump comments to insist the federal agency targeted him.

Horowitz dispelled that claim, noting that Page had nothing to do with the investigation. Although Strzok helped launch the investigation, Horowitz said it was not his decision, which fell to more senior agents.

The inspector general also said his review found other texts and messages from other FBI employees that included some that favored Trump as a candidate in the 2016 race.

Horowitz also dispelled a fallacy pushed by former FBI Director James Comey that the inspector general’s report vindicated the FBI of baseless charges by the president.

“I think the activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this,” Horowitz said.

Republicans and Democrats embraced the report findings to bolster their political arguments in a week where the House announced two articles of impeachment against Trump for allegedly trying to coerce Ukraine to launch political investigations, and when caught, obstructing a congressional investigation.

Trump has called his expected impeachment by the House as early as next week as a “sham” “witchhunt” and “hoax” and predicted acquittal in a future Senate trial.

None of the impeachment articles are related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, but Republicans have said the probe is another attempt by Democrats and loyalists in the federal government to remove Trump from office.

Attorney General William Barr said the FBI launched the Crossfire Hurricane investigation on thin suspicions. Barr has directed Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham to conduct a review of the FBI investigation which is ongoing and expected to counter some of the findings in the Horowitz report.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.