Lou Dobbs railed about shifting predictions regarding when the Justice Department will release the inspector general’s report on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses.
The Fox Business host began his Monday evening segment by criticizing Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said over the weekend the report is “coming out in weeks, not days, not months” and that he believes it will be “ugly and damning” for the DOJ because of its handling of the Russia investigation.
“The RINO and often confused Sen. Lindsey Graham, well — making some bizarre statements over the weekend, about the imminent release of the Department of Justice inspector general report on FISA abuse,” Dobbs said, using the acronym for “Republican in Name Only.” “Now where have we heard that before? And heard that repeatedly?”
He put up a graphic titled, “Moving the goal posts,” which began with Attorney General William Barr saying in April he expected Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s work to be “complete probably in May or June.”
Since then, a number of reports and lawmakers have pushed the date back, with the latest prediction being early September. Dobbs’ list included a New York Times report from early July that said Horowitz will release his findings “in the coming weeks,” as well as remarks from Rep. John Ratcliffe, who said in early July that he expected the report sometime after Labor Day and House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, who hinted in early July that the investigation will drag into the fall.
Dobbs then turned to his guest, the Hill’s John Solomon, and asked the investigative reporter to clear up “this cacophony of misinformation.”
Solomon noted that some things he first reported in mid-May were unknown to Horowitz’s investigators and led to “a whole new round of questioning.” Documents revealed that anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele met with top State Department official Kathleen Kavalec. Her notes cast doubt on the British ex-spy’s credibility.
Solomon said this included a 16-hour interview with Steele. Steele’s dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants to surveil one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, an American citizen who was never charged with wrongdoing.
Republicans have argued the dossier’s Democratic benefactors and its author’s anti-Trump bias were left out of the FISA applications and they have demanded accountability. Democrats countered that the FBI acted appropriately, saying the Justice Department and the FBI met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis for probable cause.
Newly released FBI interview notes with top DOJ official Bruce Ohr shed light on his role as a conduit between Steele and the FBI in 2016 and 2017, even after the bureau says it cut Steele off as a source for leaking to the media. Ohr told the FBI that Steele was desperate Trump not win and suggested some of Steele’s information may have stemmed from “Russian conspiracy theories.” Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked at Fusion GPS, and Bruce Ohr passed her research along to the FBI, too.
Solomon made an even later prediction based on his sources.
“I think now, barring any new disclosures, the IG is on course — sometime — I’ve heard early to mid-September to earliest week of October as the window they are trying to hit,” Solomon said. As he mentioned the new information had prompted Horowitz to reopen his investigation, Dobbs smiled.
“Inconvenient evidence, disturbing, perhaps, what had appeared to be conclusive resolution. Now it looks like it could be quite something different, and closer attention to the truth,” Dobbs said.
