Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed Thursday his office is still investigating possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the DOJ and FBI in their investigation into President Trump and associates of his 2016 campaign.
The revelation came during a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., when Horowitz was asked to divulge his biggest projects.
“We have a FISA-related review that people might have heard about that the deputy attorney general asked us to take a look at. But I’m not going to dwell on that,” he said at the event alongside three other inspectors general hosted by the Atlantic Council.
Horowitz did not comment further. The moderator, Sarah Lynch of Reuters, made it clear that the watchdog’s FISA abuse probe was off-limits for further questions. “I was also asked to just tell everybody — please don’t ask about an ongoing investigation. Don’t ask Michael [Horowitz] about the FISA-Carter Page investigation. He can’t talk about it. As much as we all want to know what the finding will be,” she said.
Nearly one year ago, on March 28, Horowitz announced the start of the FISA abuse probe by his office, saying he was doing so following requests from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Republican members of Congress. These GOP lawmakers alleged the DOJ and FBI had abused the FISA process and misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in their investigation and surveillance of Trump and his associates during the campaign and Trump’s administration.
At the time, the inspector general’s office said it would “examine the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person.” That “certain U.S. person” is believed to be Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
[Related: Ex-FISA court chief defends DOJ, FBI for handling of Carter Page surveillance applications]
The DOJ IG also said it would “review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source. Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.” The “alleged FBI confidential source” is widely believed to be Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy whose so-called Trump dossier was used in FISA applications presented before the Court to justify FISA warrants.
The Trump-Russia investigation launched by the DOJ and the FBI would carry on into the special counsel investigation, which to this day is looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Steele was being paid for his research by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was funded in part by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. Republicans have alleged the the dossier’s Democratic benefactors and Steele’s anti-Trump bias was withheld from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that the FISA process was abused.
Democrats have defended the actions of the DOJ and the FBI.
“It is a shame that the Inspector General has to devote resources to investigate a conspiracy theory as fact-free, openly political, and thoroughly debunked as the President’s so-called ‘FISA abuse,'” Rep. Jerry Nadler, who is now chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said when the DOJ IG investigation began last year. “Any objective review of these claims should tell us what we already know — that the FBI was right, that there was sufficient evidence to continue investigating certain Trump campaign officials for their connections to the Russian government, and that the Republicans are desperate to distract from that investigation.”
[Also read: Lindsey Graham calls on new champion in FISA abuse investigation]
In recent days, court depositions have been unsealed, shedding light on Steele’s efforts to share the dossier with journalists and government officials, and revealing at least one instance of a sloppy verification procedure by Steele. The deposition of David Kramer, a former State Department official who discussed the dossier with more than a dozen journalists, including BuzzFeed, and also provided it to Sen. John McCain after receiving it from Steele, was also unsealed.
The last high-profile IG investigation by Horowitz was his probe of the Justice Department’s and FBI’s handling of “Midyear Exam,” the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices. That 568-page document released in June 2018 was critical of many steps taken by leaders in the DOJ and FBI, including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, all of whom were key players in the Trump-Russia investigation as well.
It is not known when the much-anticipated FISA abuse report from Horowitz will be completed and released.
