Former South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy has a problem with how the FBI conducted its counterintelligence investigation into President Trump’s campaign in the summer of 2016.
Taking no issue with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s determination that the Trump-Russia investigation was properly predicated, Gowdy found there to be “a lot of bias” thereafter.
“That is not the FBI that I worked with. It is not representative of 99.9% of the bureau agents that I know,” the former federal prosecutor said on Fox News this week.
“But they’ve got a problem,” he said. “And if you’re changing emails, manufacturing, altering evidence, which is a crime, because you want to get at somebody — you don’t want them to be president of the United States, not only do you not have any business being an FBI agent or law enforcement, you probably ought to be wearing an orange jumpsuit.”
According to Horowitz, who released his findings on the investigation on Monday, the Trump-Russia inquiry was adequately predicated and “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations.” But he also found several “significant” errors and omissions in the FBI’s effort to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to monitor onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who was suspected of working on behalf of Russia but ultimately never charged with wrongdoing.
Horowitz was unable to say if bias tainted the Page FISA process, but Attorney General William Barr put out a statement that said the FBI had “insufficient” evidence to justify steps taken in the Russia investigation.
Gowdy said “the most damning part” of the report focused on how an FBI lawyer, identified as Kevin Clinesmith, improperly altered a document in the final FISA renewal to say Page was “not a source” for another government agency. Clinesmith, who is no longer with the FBI, is under criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham as part of his review of the Russia investigation.
“I did not know that an FBI lawyer — someone that we give incredible powers and authorities and therefore corresponding responsibility to — would change someone’s status,” Gowdy said. “I mean, keep in mind: A counterintelligence investigation is because you think Carter Page is working on behalf of Russia. The reality is Carter Page was working on behalf of the United States of America, and you changed it from he’s not a — he is a source to he’s not a source, which is a manifestly unfair thing to do to Carter Page.”
[Related: Trey Gowdy back at Fox News after failed attempt to join Trump legal team]
The other agency, which reportedly was the CIA, had informed the FBI in August 2016 that Page was an “operational contact” for them from 2008 to 2013, providing information over the course of his normal business activities about his contacts with Russian intelligence officers. That information did not appear in the FISA application that followed. The initial warrant application was approved by the FISA court in October 2016, and renewals came at three-month intervals in January, April, and June 2017.
Gowdy faulted then-CIA Director John Brennan for not doing more to defend Page as he came under surveillance.
“God knows he’s on television enough. He’s had ample opportunity when these — all these interviews he gives about Trump ought to be in the dustbin of history and how treasonous he is, it would have been nice for him to stick up and say, ‘Hey, y’all are doing surveillance right now, reading the emails, intercepting the phone calls of someone that actually is working for the country as opposed to against the country.’ It’d been nice if he’d spoken up,” Gowdy said of Brennan.
In an interview on MSNBC this week, Brennan stressed that there were “joint groups” to share information across intelligence agencies, but he conceded “it’s a difficult thing” to juggle national security and the privacy of an American citizen who is under investigation.
Gowdy also shared some harsh words for then-FBI Director James Comey, who signed off on three of the Page FISA warrants before he was fired in May 2017.
Comey celebrated the release of the inspector general report, saying it showed the FBI was “smeared” by Barr and Trump’s allies in a Washington Post opinion piece on Monday. “The FBI fulfilled its mission — protecting the American people and upholding the U.S. Constitution. Now those who attacked the FBI for two years should admit they were wrong,” he wrote.
“I don’t know what report Comey read. This is the third IG report that has found his conduct to be substandard. If that’s a victory lap, if he wants to take a victory lap because he’s not indicted, more power to him. Don’t write any more books on ethics, though. Don’t tell me what the ethical standard is if you think this report vindicates you,” Gowdy said.
