IG Report Finds FBI ‘Fell Far Short,’ Made ‘Serious’ Errors In FISA Application To Surveil Trump Campaign

Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged FBI misconduct during its surveillance of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign found that the FBI “fell far short” and made “serious” errors in obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications that it used to surveil the campaign.

“We concluded that the failures described above and in this report represent serious performance failures by the supervisory and non-supervisory agents with responsibility over the FISA applications,” the investigation found. “These failures prevented [Office of Intelligence (OI)] from fully performing its gatekeeper function and deprived the decision makers the opportunity to make fully informed decisions. Although some of the factual misstatements and omissions we found in this review were arguably more significant than others, we believe that all of them taken together resulted in FISA applications that made it appear that the information supporting probable cause was stronger than was actually the case.”

“We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures,” the investigation found. “These errors and omissions resulted from case agents providing wrong or incomplete information to OI and failing to flag important issues for discussion.”

The report states that Crossfire Hurricane, which was the code name of the FBI’s counterintelligence operation, found that there was insufficient evidence to support probable cause that Carter Page was an agent of a foreign power and that the FBI ultimately used the anti-Trump dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele to surveil the Trump Campaign.

The report continues, “However, on September 19, 2016, the same day that the Crossfire Hurricane team first received Steele’s election reporting, the team re-initiated discussions with OGC about seeking a FISA order authorizing surveillance targeting Page and specifically focused on Steele’s reporting in drafting the FISA request.”

That means that it appears as though that opposition research, paid for by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was used to launch the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1204102160579006471

Even worse, the FBI “did not have information corroborating the specific allegations against Carter Page in Steele’s reports when it relied upon them in the FISA applications,” the investigation found, adding that the Steel’s unverified claims “played a central and essential role in the decision by FBI OGC to support the request for FISA surveillance targeting Carter Page, as well as the Department’s ultimate decision to seek the FISA order.”

The report also found that the FBI used Steele to get information on General Michael Flynn and promised Steele that he would be paid “significantly” for the information and that he would be paid an additional “$15,000 for his trip to the European city for the early October meeting.”

The report found that, according to FBI staff, “as the interagency editing process for the [Intelligence Community Assessment] progressed, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) expressed concern about the lack of vetting for the Steele election reporting and asserted it did not merit inclusion in the body of the report. An FBI Intel Section Chief told us the CIA viewed it as ‘internet rumor.'”

The report states that former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe persisted in including Steele’s unverified reporting that was deemed to be an “internet rumor” in their ICA.

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IG REPORT

The FBI used Christopher Steele to get information on General Flynn.

FBI promised Steele he would be paid "significantly" for this information.

cc @KerriKupecDOJ pic.twitter.com/iLLDcTVnbJ

— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) December 9, 2019

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