A new timeline has emerged in recent days for Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into alleged surveillance abuses by the DOJ and the FBI.
Whereas Attorney General William Barr predicted earlier this year that the watchdog’s investigation would be finished by May or early June, now lawmakers are pointing to the early fall.
Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that he “expects that report later this fall.”
His colleague John Ratcliffe, who has spoken to Horowitz, gave a more specific target. The Texas congressman told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Wednesday, “I think that we will get the IG’s report probably sometime right after Labor Day.” Labor Day is Sept. 2.
Further solidifying the prediction was a RealClearInvestigations report about former FBI Director James Comey having an inside man at the White House, feeding the bureau information about President Trump and his aides in 2017. That report also set a release date sometime in September.
The delay in Horowitz’s work was reportedly due to his team’s two-day meeting with Steele in person in London in early June, during President Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom. Investigators found Steele’s information credible enough to warrant extending their investigation.
Horowitz launched an investigation in March 2018 into whether the FBI and the Justice Department filing of four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications and renewals beginning in October 2016 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 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 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Steele’s Democratic benefactors were not revealed to the FISA Court.
Meanwhile Barr’s “investigation into the investigators” is underway, and the attorney general has said he is working very closely with Horowitz. The inspector general can recommend prosecutions, and U.S. Attorney John Durham, whom Barr tasked to lead the review, has the ability to convene a grand jury and subpoena people outside of the government. Beyond that, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, has promised a “deep dive” into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation after Horowitz completes his work.
Stay tuned to the Washington Examiner this weekend for closer look at what to expect from Horowitz’s report.
