Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham announced a date for the release of the Justice Department inspector general’s report on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses.
During an appearance on Fox News, the South Carolina Republican said Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings would be released on Monday, Dec. 9.
“It’ll be December 9th — you’ll get the report,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. “That’s locked,” he added.
The announcement comes a couple of days after Graham scheduled a hearing on Dec. 11 for Horowitz to testify about his report on FBI intelligence-gathering activities related to the 2016 presidential election.
A letter Horowitz wrote to Graham and other top Judiciary leaders in the House and Senate was released on Thursday, confirming Graham’s announcement.
“The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is nearing completion of our usual pre-release processes for our report. … Therefore, barring unforeseen circumstances, I expect that the OIG will be able to release our report on Monday, December 9,” Horowitz wrote.
“I look forward to answering the Committee’s questions about our report during the December 11 hearing,” he added.
As impeachment proceedings grip Capitol Hill, President Trump’s GOP allies have eagerly anticipated the release of the FISA report and have vented over what appeared to be repeated delays. The investigation was completed in September, and Attorney General William Barr told reporters last week the release of the report was “imminent” after a classification review and final session for witnesses to provide feedback.
The investigation began in March 2018 after the House Intelligence Committee, which at the time was led by Republicans, released a memo outlining allegations that DOJ and FBI officials misled the FISA court to target Trump’s campaign. Democrats put together a rebuttal memo that defended the actions of the DOJ and the FBI.
Republicans believe Horowitz’s report will reveal overreliance on an unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele to obtain warrants to monitor onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page electronically. Some have even predicted indictments and prison time for officials who signed off on the warrants.
Democrats, as well as current and former FBI officials, have dismissed allegations of wrongdoing and have raised concerns that information about U.S. intelligence-gathering could be leveraged to discredit former special counsel Robert Mueller.
Graham’s appearance on Fox News took place during a busy week for the inspector general’s office, which released two reports that offer hints at what to expect from the FISA investigation. Horowitz published the findings of a major audit on Tuesday that found a slew of issues with the FBI’s validation processes for secret sources. On Wednesday, he released a report that showed the Justice Department’s handling of government surveillance tools is among its most “pressing concerns.”
As Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee accused their Democratic colleagues of being uninterested in holding hearings on the matter, Graham has pledged to do a “deep dive” of his own into FISA following the release of Horowitz’s report and urged the Justice Department to declassify as much material related to the investigation as possible. Horowitz provided an update to Congress on Oct. 24, saying he expected it to “be released publicly with few redactions.”
Horowitz’s findings in the FISA report could be useful for U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation.
