Barr says watchdog report on Russia probe's origins is 'imminent'
Attorney General William Barr confirmed on Wednesday that an internal watchdog’s report on the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia during the 2016 election is “imminent.”
The highly anticipated report, led by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, seeks to establish whether the bureau violated laws and policies that govern the surveillance of American citizens.
“It’s been reported and it’s my understanding that it is imminent,” Barr said at a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee. “A number of people who were mentioned in the report are having an opportunity right now to comment on how they were quoted in the report, and after that process is over which is very short, the report will be issued. That’s what the inspector general himself suggests.”
The Justice Department inspector general’s office declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for Barr declined to elaborate on his suggestion about the timing. However, two sources confirmed that interview subjects had been notified in recent days that they would soon be shown portions of the review—typically a sign that the report is on the verge of public release.
Horowitz had previously indicated, in an Oct. 24 letter to Congress, that he was in the process of finalizing his report. He said he had turned over a draft of his findings to the Justice Department and the FBI for a classification review.
“The goal from my standpoint is to make as much of our report public as possible,” Horowitz wrote. “I anticipate that the final report will be released publicly with few redactions.”
Barr has said little about Horowitz’s report, but in a May interview with CBS News, he described the inspector general’s inquiry as limited in scope. “He’s looking at a discrete area that is- that is you know, important, which is the use of electronic surveillance that was targeted at Carter Page,” Barr said, referring to the unpaid Trump campaign adviser whose meetings with Russian officials drew FBI scrutiny during the 2016 campaign.
Republicans have alleged that the FBI misrepresented the basis of its application for a warrant to surveil Page to a federal judge, saying the bureau underplayed the importance of the so-called Steele dossier, along with its partisan origins. The warrant was reviewed and renewed multiple times, by judges appointed by presidents of both parties.
Asked about the IG report, Page told POLITICO he was "just in the process of confirming specific details with DOJ, but I remain optimistic that this should happen imminently."
FBI officials have said in official documents that the true origin of its Russia probe was not the dossier, a compilation of raw intelligence reports by former MI-6 officer Christopher Steele, but a tip that another unpaid Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was bragging to an Australian diplomat about how Russia had obtained a trove of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
A footnote in the warrant application, which was released by House Republicans over Democrats’ objections, does note the dossier’s link to partisan politics. But it does not specifically disclose its links to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party, which had commissioned Steele’s work.
Horowitz’s report is wrapping up while a broader investigation into the Russia probe, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, remains ongoing. Former top CIA officials, including John Brennan, have said they expected to be interviewed and pledged to cooperate.
Barr has said he had instructed Durham to determine whether there was an “adequate predicate” for the Russia probe, which resulted in a special counsel’s report that ultimately did not establish that the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow.
Durham’s probe recently became a criminal inquiry, though it’s not clear precisely when or whether Horowitz has made any criminal referrals arising from his work on the FISA issue.
