The ranking Republican member on the House Judiciary Committee hinted on Sunday that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s much-anticipated report detailing the findings of his inquiry into allegations of Justice Department and FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act might not be released until the end of the summer.
Horowitz launched an investigation in March 2018 into whether the FBI and Justice Department filing of four FISA applications and renewals to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was an abuse of the FISA process. The applications relied heavily upon the unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by Fusion GPS. The opposition research firm was hired by Marc Elias of the Perkins Coie law firm at the behest of the Clinton presidential campaign.
Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia made the remark about the timing of Horowitz’s report while speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, telling her that he “expects that report later this fall.”
Attorney General William Barr predicted earlier this year that Horowitz’s investigation would wrap up in May or June, which didn’t pan out. Barr relayed to Congress that he was “working very closely” with Horowitz on this issue.
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina correctly expressed doubts back in June about the report being completed that month and said that “one of the reasons for that is additional information has been given to the inspector general for them to investigate.”
It was recently revealed that Steele himself finally agreed to be interviewed by members of Horowitz’s team in early June, and the information provided by Steele was reportedly interesting or credible enough to justify extending the length of the probe.
Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas relayed in early July a conversation he had with Horowitz a week prior, stating that the Justice Department inspector general told him that the probe was “complete” and that Horowitz’s team was “now in the process of drafting that report.”
Ratcliffe said at the time he didn’t think that Horowitz’s report would be made available to the public or the Congress anytime soon.
“He did relay that as much as 20% of his report is going to include classified information, so that draft report will have to undergo a classification review at the FBI and at the Department of Justice,” Ratcliffe noted. “So, while I’m hopeful that we members of Congress might see it before the August recess, I’m not too certain about that.”
Now, according to Collins, the release of the report may be pushed back again to the fall.
Part of the reason for these delays could be the volume of information that the Justice Department inspector general collected throughout his FISA abuse investigation. In a letter to Congress, Horowitz said his team had revealed more than 1 million records and had conducted more than 100 interviews.
