On Monday the year-plus in the making Department of Justice Inspector General Report regarding the “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation,” was released to the public.
On Wednesday Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the reports findings.
On Tuesday the President held a campaign rally in Hershey, PA. During the rally the President revived #Spygate; the gate that means President Obama and his administration spied on the Trump Campaign based on information from the Steel Dossier.
Trump, slurring, trashes Christopher Wray. “You have great people in the FBI, but not in leadership. You have not good people in leadership.” pic.twitter.com/ZeSh7hLgHv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2019
According to the redacted public report PDF pg. 3 (report pg. ii), Crossfire Hurricane, was started on July 31st, 2016 based on information provided by a Friendly Foreign Government (FFG) and “Steele’s reports played no role in the Crossfire Hurricane opening.”
Crossfire Hurricane covered four individuals connected to team Trump:
- George Papadopoulos
- Carter Page
- Paul Manafort
- Michael Flynn
The report explains in the Executive Summary that based on AG guidelines:
we concluded that the FFG information, provided by a government the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) deems trustworthy, and describing a first-hand account from an FFG employee of a conversation with Papadopoulos, was sufficient to predicate the investigation.
IG Report PDF pg. 4.
From that same page, the IG explains that as part of the review they also sought to determine “whether there was evidence that political bias or other improper considerations affected decision making in Crossfire Hurricane,” this included the opening of the investigation.
The IG went on to explain that then-Special Counsel to the Deputy Director of the FBI, Lisa Page, infamous for anti-Trump text messages exchanged with then-FBI Section Chief Peter Strzok, played no role in the decision to open Crossfire Hurricane or the four individuals cases.
Likewise with Strzok, the IG found that while Strzok’s was directly involved in the decisions to open Crossfire Hurricane and the four individuals cases, he was not the sole, or even the highest-level, decision makers as to any of those matters.
For What It’s Worth.
While the IG found issues and concerns regarding the FBI’s handling of the investigation and seeking a FISA warrant on Carter Page, the IG also “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page.”
The report found that while the team was interested in seeking FISA surveillance targeting Papadopoulos, “the FBI OGC attorney’s were not supportive.”
The IG is not aware of any information “indicating that the team requested or seriously considered FISA surveillance of Manafort or Flynn.”
*PDF pg. 7 of the IG report.*
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*I have no idea why NBC News is calling this an Impeachment Hearing*
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Unlike the House feeds the Senate Judiciary feed is not a YouTube video. To view that feed you can find it here.
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