Sen. Lindsey Graham said the revelation of the FBI’s notes on interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr is just “the tip of the iceberg.”
During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday, the South Carolina Republican said he expects the release of more information regarding the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation and possible misconduct by the FBI and DOJ.
“I know personally there’s a lot more out there and the word that keeps coming up is bias,” Graham said.
Graham is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and has vowed to do a “deep dive” after the conclusion of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Attorney General William Barr is also conducting a review of the Russia investigation origins and has been granted the power to declassify relevant documents by President Trump.
“Here’s what we’re looking at: systematic corruption at the highest level of the Department of Justice and the FBI against President Trump and in favor of Hillary Clinton,” Graham said.
The Justice Department released 34 pages of FBI “302” summaries of interviews agents had with Ohr, a Justice Department official who acted as a backchannel between the bureau the anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, on Thursday in compliance with a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.
These documents add insight into the efforts by Steele and Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired him, to share his findings with the media and government officials. His dossier, which was funded by Democrats and contained unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants to surveil onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, an American citizen who was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Asked whether he believes officials lied on a FISA warrant application, Graham said, “The best you could say is that they were incompetent. The most likely outcome is that they wanted a result.”
After opining that the FISA warrant and renewals taken out against Page were a “fraud,” Graham said the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation is “something we need to look at really closely.”
