FBI lawyer reportedly altered document in Russia investigation origin, didn't change outcome

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz did uncover a flaw in the FBI's initial application to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016, CNN and The Washington Post report, and Horowitz will include it in his final report on the origins of the investigation of Russian campaign interference and President Trump's campaign. Horowitz is expected to release his report Dec. 9 and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee two days later.

A low-level FBI lawyer may have made "substantive change to an investigative document" used to secure a FISA court warrant to monitor Page's communications, and "the alterations were significant enough to have shifted the document's meaning," CNN reports. But, the Post adds, the line lawyer's "conduct did not alter Horowitz’s finding that the surveillance application" had "a proper legal and factual basis." In fact, Trump campaign officials have "corroborated Special Counsel Robert Mueller's finding that the Trump campaign planned some of its strategy around the Russian hacks, and had multiple contacts with Kremlin-linked individuals in 2016," CNN notes.

The unidentified FBI lawyer "altered an email to back up" an erroneous claim about having purported documentation, the Post reports, and "the employee was forced out of the FBI after the incident was discovered." Horowitz reportedly shared this information with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a parallel investigation of the origins of the Russia probe, "and Durham is expected to pursue the allegation surrounding the altered document to see whether it constitutes a crime," the Post reports.

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