Politics

Lindsey Graham: FISA Abuse Report Will Be ‘Ugly And Damning’ For DOJ, FBI

James_Comey | Circa June 2016 | By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he expects the inspector general’s report into FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign will be “ugly and damning” for the agency and the Department of Justice.

“I want it all out. I want people to see how off the rails this investigation got, and I want people to be held accountable,” Graham said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

Since March 2018, Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz has investigated whether the FBI and DOJ misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in applications for wiretap warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Horowitz told Congress June 25 he had completed the investigation and was in the process of writing a report of his findings. Some Republican lawmakers said the report is likely to come out shortly after Labor Day.

The FBI relied heavily on the unverified and Democrat-funded Steele dossier in four applications to surveil Page. The special counsel’s report dealt the dossier a heavy blow, by undercutting the document’s core claim that the Trump campaign and Page were part of a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” with the Russian government.

“I believe the Horowitz report is going to be ugly and damning regarding the Department of Justice handling of the Russia probe,” Graham said Sunday, adding he wants as much of the report as possible to be declassified.

“I want the American public to hear the story. I want all this information to come out. I want them to read for themselves how bad it was, the warrant application to the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Court I think was quite frankly a fraud on the court.”

Graham also said he is interested in finding out more about what role the CIA played in gathering intelligence on Trump associates.

“I really am very curious about the role the CIA played here. We know that the FISA warrant application was based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steele who was biased against Trump that was unverified,” he said.

“But this whole intelligence operations — what role did the CIA play? Who knew about this in the White House?”

Attorney General William Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to oversee an inquiry into government agencies’ activities before July 31, 2016, when the FBI formally opened its investigation of the Trump campaign.

Former CIA Director John Brennan testified on May 23, 2017 that he shared information with the FBI related to possible Russian contacts with Trump associates.