Fox News host Sean Hannity says the release of the Justice Department inspector general’s report on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses could happen next month.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz completed his year-and-a-half investigation more than a month ago, and Republicans and conservative media figures have confidently asserted that, following a classification review by the Justice Department and the FBI, the report would emerge in October.
After bringing up Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s tweet this week saying “deep state” forces may be trying to “deep-six” the report, Hannity said Wednesday that he doesn’t know why the findings are not yet public.
Hannity said he is “angry as everybody else because we already know what happened,” claiming that it is already known there was “premeditated fraud” before the FISA court. Hannity said this is because British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier was used to electronically monitor onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
After positing that the “deep state is protecting their own,” Hannity said, “Eventually we need to get to the truth. Now I’m told the first week of November. I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath.”
Trump allies have expressed concerns over the past week about the possibility that current and former officials are jockeying to redact as much of the report as possible. Former Republican Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, now a Fox News contributor, said last week that “evidently, there’s an intra-agency debate … about the classification issues” and the report could be 10%-20% redacted when it is released.
A DOJ official who spoke with Fox News disputed there being a tumultuous debate over redactions. “The FBI and the DOJ are working together smoothly on the declassification process,” the official said.
Republican allies of President Trump believe Horowitz’s report will reveal a conspiracy by top DOJ and FBI officials improperly targeting the Trump team by misleading the FISA court. Democrats have dismissed allegations of rampant FISA-related wrongdoing.
