Durham and Barr Reject Findings in IG Report!

The long-awaited report from IG Michael Horowitz has dropped. The investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election found several procedural errors, but overall no indication of any “political bias” by the agency. The review also found that the FBI was justified in launching its July 2016 investigation into the campaign, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”

The 434-page report is based on more than 1 million documents from the Justice Department and the FBI and interviews with more than 100 witnesses. It examined the procedures for obtaining the 90-day surveillance warrant and renewals of that warrant for Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide. Horowitz probed the use of the Steele dossier as justification.

While the report did not contain the anticipated bombshells hoped for and predicted by the GOP, it is not the end of the story for Republicans and allies of the president.

Soon after the report was released, Attorney General Bill Barr challenged its findings. In a statement to the press, Barr said, “The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.” reads.

U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is leading a separate review of the FBI’s investigation, joined the bar in rejecting Horowitz’s findings.

“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham said in a statement.

Durham noted that his investigation includes information from other entities outside the Justice Department, “both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.” Durham’s probe is a criminal investigation, which gives him the authority to issue subpoenas to witnesses and documents, as well as to impanel a grand jury, whereas Horowitz’s report was just as a procedural review.

Durham’s inquiry has had a broader scope than Horowitz’s, including a focus on foreign actors as well as the CIA, while Horowitz concentrated his attention on the DOJ and FBI.

What Should We Expect From Durham’s Investigation?

Still, Horowitz’s report offered several clues as to potential avenues that Durham may be pursuing. For example, Horowitz noted that the FBI omitted exculpatory statements by former Trump aide George Papadopoulos in its Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant application to surveil another ex-Trump aide, Carter Page.

Horowitz noted that the bureau, in its FISA application and subsequent renewals, completely failed to mention that Page had been “approved as an operational contact” and served as a valuable asset, presumably for the CIA, from 2008 to 2013.

Papadopoulos previously told Fox News he was convinced that the CIA was behind an “operation” in which he met intelligence community informants in London in late 2016 who tried to probe whether the Trump campaign had ties to Russia. He later said he would head to Greece to obtain money in a safe from the FBI or CIA that he said was intended to entrap him.

Additionally, according to Horowitz’s report, the CIA viewed the now-discredited dossier from British ex-spy Christopher Steele as an “internet rumor,” even though key bureau officials including former FBI Director James Comey sought to include the dossier in its highly sensitive intelligence community assessment on Russian interference, known as the ICA.

Sources previously told Fox News that a late-2016 email chain indicated Comey told bureau subordinates that then-CIA Director John Brennan insisted the dossier be included in the ICA. A Brennan representative pointed the finger back at Comey.

Current FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that he accepted the report’s findings and acknowledged that “certain FBI personnel” had failed to comply with the FBI’s policies and standards of conduct. He wrote that the bureau “embraces the need for thoughtful, meaningful remedial action,” and in response to the report, Wray said that he has “ordered more than 40 corrective steps to address the Report’s recommendations.”