The Justice Department inspector general found that FBI officials made “serious performance failures” in their efforts to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Though Michael Horowitz did not find “documentary or testimonial evidence” of severe political bias, there were “at least 17 significant errors or omissions” in the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application. The FBI also relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier, Horowitz found, which could have skewed the intelligence community’s investigation into alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia.
“That so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the FBI, and that FBI officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of command’s management,” the report states.
The report might not be the bombshell the GOP had hoped for, but it does confirm that intelligence community-skeptics were right to be concerned about the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation. It’s unclear whether the FBI had a legitimate reason to surveil Page. Horowitz seems to conclude that there was indeed such a reason. But we now know that how the FBI handled the surveillance was a complete violation of Page’s right to privacy given the FBI’s many omissions in its FISA application.
This is a clear abuse of the FISA process. The Justice Department plans to run an audit to ensure similar abuse does not occur in the future, and Horowitz is scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday. But one thing is clear: There is deep-rooted irresponsibility in the intelligence community, and it’s time these agencies were held accountable.
