Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz put together a chart of all the mistakes he found the FBI made in the process of obtaining warrants to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The list of “numerous” errors and omissions appears in a draft report containing the findings of Horowitz’s year-and-a-half investigation examining the DOJ’s and the FBI’s compliance with legal requirements and policies in applications filed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the New York Times.
The final report is slated for release on Dec. 9, and two days later Horowitz is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his investigation.
President Trump’s GOP allies have eagerly anticipated Horowitz’s report, believing it will show that top Justice Department and FBI officials misled the FISA Court by using an unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele to obtain warrants to wiretap Page after he left the campaign.
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 weaponized to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller.
[RELATED: DOJ watchdog expected to criticize FBI for excluding ‘game changer’ material from FISA application]
According to leaks about the draft report, Horowitz is expected to condemn the FBI for failing to inform the judges on the FISA Court of potential problems with the dossier.
The inspector general is also said to have found no evidence of political bias by top officials tainting the Russia investigation. His investigators did find that an FBI lawyer, identified as Kevin Clinesmith, allegedly altered a document related to the surveillance of Page, but determined Clinesmith’s actions did not taint the overall validity of a renewal application.
[RELATED: Bruce Ohr faces criticism in Russia investigation review]
Horowitz referred his findings about Clinesmith to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges.
At about the same time, U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was conducting an administrative review of the Russia investigation at the behest of Attorney General William Barr, shifted his case into a criminal investigation.
Page, an American citizen who was suspected to be a Russian asset but was never charged, claimed he has not been given a chance to provide any input for Horowitz’s “one-sided” report and filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for D.C. last month accusing the Justice Department of Privacy Act violations and demanding an opportunity to review the FISA report before it is released to the public.
