Lindsey Graham says Horowitz FISA report will be 'ugly and damning' for DOJ - Washington Examiner

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina predicted Sunday that the upcoming report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be “ugly and damning” for the DOJ.

The Republican Senate Judiciary chairman spoke with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, saying the much-anticipated Horowitz report was “coming out in weeks, not days, not months.” In explaining to Bartiromo why the release of the report had been repeatedly delayed — Attorney General William Barr predicted early this year it would come out in May or June — Graham said “every time you turn around you find something new.”

Graham predicted Horowitz would have a lot to say about "the good, the bad, and the ugly" at the FBI and DOJ, and would likely have recommendations about what should be done to fix it.

Graham also said once Horowitz finishes his report, it will be sent to the Justice Department for a review for any classified information. The senator said he was meeting with Barr next week to ensure as much of the report as possible is made public.

“I want to declassify as much as possible,” Graham said. “I want the American public to hear the story. I want all of this information to come out. I don’t want people to believe what I say about it — I want them to read for themselves how bad it was.”

"I believe the Horowitz report is going to be ugly and damning regarding the Department of Justice handling of the Russia probe," Graham added.

The FBI and DOJ obtained four FISA warrants and renewals against Trump campaign associate Carter Page beginning in October 2016 through June 2017. The 412 pages of redacted FISA documents released in 2018 show the DOJ and FBI made extensive use of the dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which he put together in 2016 at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. The Clinton campaign hired the firm through Marc Elias of the Perkins Coie law firm and the campaign was briefed about Steele's findings throughout the race. Steele’s funding from Democrats was never revealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

And 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." Bruce Ohr's wife, Nellie, worked at Fusion GPS, and Bruce Ohr passed her research along to the FBI too.

Graham explained today that Horowitz “is doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application” and is looking into “the behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation.” Graham said he believed the evidence would show the FBI’s FISA filings were “a fraud on the court.”

The senator specifically pointed to the FBI being “on notice” that Steele “hated Trump and was an unreliable informant,” to Steele’s information allegedly coming from Russian sources and being “unverified to this day,” and to allegedly exonerating nonpublic transcripts of interviews of Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos with an FBI informant, likely Cambridge professor Stefan Halper.

The interactions that Papadopoulos had with the mysterious Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud allegedly led to the FBI opening an inquiry into Trump in July 2016. Mifsud allegedly told Papadopoulos in the spring of 2016 about the Russians having “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos then allegedly mentioned this to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, who later passed the information along to the FBI, triggering what the FBI dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane.” Republicans now say exonerating information about Papadopoulos was concealed from the FISA Court.

“I want it all out,” Graham emphasized. “I want people to see how off the rails this investigation got and I want people to be held accountable. And I am patient, I’m not in a hurry to do it, I want to do it right.”

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