Thread by @EpochTimes

“There is such a range of conduct here that is inexplicable… Our final recommendation was to refer the entire chain of command,” #IGHorowitz said. (Thread👇)

News Analysis🔎by Jeff Carlson @themarketswork theepochtimes.com/horowitz-repor…

The newly released #IGReport noted the material failures of the @FBI—“not only the operational team, but also of the managers and supervisors, including senior officials, in the chain of command”—with regard to the #FISA warrant application on Trump campaign aide @CarterWPage.

#IGHorowitz’s findings were so significant that he recommended the @FBI’s “entire chain of command” outlined in his report to the #DOJ for “consideration of how to assess and address their performance failures.” justice.gov/storage/120919…

@FBI According to #Horowitz, these failures prevented the Office of Intelligence “from fully performing its gatekeeper function and deprived the decision makers the opportunity to make fully informed decisions.”

The #IGReport was highly critical of the actions taken by the @FBI during the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and directly challenged the processes, oversight, and leadership within the #FBI:

The #IGReport also hinted at biases within the investigative @FBI group, without specifically using the actual term:

@FBI During the #HorowitzHearing on Dec. 11, 2019, #Horowitz directly addressed the matter during questioning by Sen. @MikeCrapo, and specifically noted that he believed that #PoliticalBias was a factor during the #FISA application and renewal process:

#Horowitz also was asked by @MikeCrapo about intentional versus grossly negligent conduct by the @FBI. Crapo noted that it’s “mind-numbing to consider that it could be just accidental.”

#Horowitz also made a significant disclosure regarding the unique legal restrictions that he was operating under during his investigation, telling congressional members, “We’re the only IG that can’t review conduct of all the employees in our organization, including attorneys.”

The inability of #IGHorowitz to review the conduct of attorneys is particularly surprising, given that he’s the inspector general for @TheJusticeDept and @FBI—a government division that has an overabundance of lawyers within its employ.

@TheJusticeDept @FBI #IGHorowitz was asked by Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC if former @FBI Director @Comey was vindicated by the #IGReport, as #Comey had publicly claimed earlier.

#Horowitz responded succinctly: “The activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this FISA.”

During the conclusion of #Horowitz’s opening remarks, he noted that as a result of his findings, he was referring the entire @FBI chain of command for their significant performance failures:

@FBI The #IGReport identified “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures.”

Media organizations have widely reported that the IG didn’t find “documentary evidence” of intentional misconduct or bias…

…on the part of the @FBI, but have failed to note that #Horowitz was unsatisfied and unconvinced with the answers he received for the multiple errors and problematic actions on the part of the FBI.

#IGHorowitz also noted that some active members of the #CrossfireHurricane investigative team elected to utilize their own judgments, rather than presenting the evidence to the Office of Intelligence for a legal and procedural decision:

While there has also been an ongoing narrative regarding the IG’s finding that @FBI was within its rights in opening the initial July 31, 2016, counterintelligence investigation, #IGHorowitz noted that his focus wasn’t on the #FBI’s decision to open that investigation:

#Horowitz noted that the threshold for predication was “low” and specifically noted his concern that “Department and FBI policies do not require that a senior [Justice] Department official be notified prior to the opening of a particularly sensitive case such as this one.”

The #IGReport stated that it concluded that the failures of the @FBI “represent serious performance failures by the supervisory and non-supervisory agents with responsibility over the FISA applications.”

@FBI On the original @CarterWPage #FISA Application, the IG Found:
1. The @FBI omitted information from the FISA application that detailed work that Page had previously done for another U.S. government agency.
2. The FBI mischaracterized former British intelligence officer…

…#ChristopherSteele’s prior work for @TheJusticeDept in the #FISA application.
3. The @FBI didn’t inform the #FISACourt of certain material concerns regarding a key source that #Steele used for his #SteeleDossier: that Person 1 was a “boaster,” an “egoist,” and “may engage in…

…some embellishment.”
4. The @FBI used a Sept. 23, 2016, article by @YahooNews reporter Michael @Isikoff as corroboration of the #SteeleDossier. The #FBI failed to inform the #FISACourt that #Steele was actually the source for #Isikoff’s article.

5. The @FBI failed to provide the #FISACourt with a statement by Trump campaign adviser @GeorgePapa19 to a confidential human source (CHS) in Sept 2016—presumably #FBI informant #StefanHalper—in which #Papadopoulos…

…denied that anyone from the Trump campaign was collaborating with #Russia.
6. The @FBI also omitted a statement from @CarterWPage denying that he ever met former Trump campaign manager #PaulManafort. This denial was important as #Steele claimed that Page was acting as an…

…intermediary to #Russia on behalf of #Manafort.
7. The @FBI “cherry-picked” statements made by @CarterWPage to an #FBI CHS that served to support obtaining a #FISA on Page, while, at the same time, excluding statements from Page that weren’t supportive of such an action.

@FBI @carterwpage On the @CarterWPage #FISA Renewals, #IGHorowitz found:
1. All of #Steele’s sourcing for his #SteeleDossier came from 2nd- and 3rd-hand sources. The @FBI presented Steele’s single and primary sub-source as being credible to the #FISACourt but omitted statements and information…

…that #Steele’s primary sub-source ”had made statements in January 2017 raising significant questions about the reliability of allegations included in the FISA applications.”
2. The @FBI failed to inform the #FISACourt of @CarterWPage’s “prior relationship with another…

…U.S. government agency, despite being reminded by the other agency in June 2017, prior to the filing of the final renewal application, about Page’s past status with that agency.”
3. The @FBI presented #Steele as a former intelligence official whose work was held in…

…high standing by not only @FBI, but also other government departments. But #FBI failed to provide the #FISACourt with available information that was derogatory or unflattering regarding #Steele from persons who previously had professional contacts with Steele or had direct…

…knowledge of his work-related performance.
4. The @FBI also hid from the #FISACourt that #Steele’s information was being sent to other politically motivated individuals and the media, while playing down Steele’s personal biases against then-candidate Trump.

5. The @FBI failed to update the #FISACourt with new info regarding the veracity of #Steele’s work as new info came into the #FBI’s possession, including a failure “to update the description of Steele after information became known to the Crossfire Hurricane team, from Ohr and…

…others, that provided greater clarity on the political origins and connections of Steele’s reporting including that Simpson was hired by someone associated with the Democratic Party and/or the DNC.”
6. Even after @FBI had conclusive knowledge that #Steele had been the source…

…for @Isikoff’s @YahooNews article, they failed to provide the #FISACourt with this information during any of the #FISA renewals.

Notably, @FBI told the FISA Court that they “did not believe that Steele directly provided info” to Isikoff in the original FISA application.

7. The @FBI overstated #Steele’s credentials and past contributions to prior investigations. Steele’s work was presented to the #FISACourt as having been used in criminal proceedings when they had, in fact, never been utilized in criminal proceedings.

8. The @FBI continued to omit statements that @GeorgePapa19 made to the #FBI’s CHS, whereby #Papadopoulos continued to deny “that the Trump campaign was involved in the circumstances of the DNC email hack.”

9. The @FBI omitted denials from Maltese professor #JosephMifsud that he “supplied Papadopoulos with the information that Papadopoulos shared with the FFG [Friendly Foreign Government] (suggesting that the campaign received an offer or suggestion of assistance from Russia).”

10. @FBI “omitted information indicating that Page played no role in the Republican platform change on Russia’s annexation of Ukraine as alleged in the Report 95, which was inconsistent with a factual assertion relied upon to support probable cause in all four FISA applications.”

@FBI The #IGReport noted that “among the most serious of the 10 additional errors we found in the renewal applications was the FBI’s failure to advise OI [Office of Intelligence] or the [FISA] court of the inconsistencies… between Steele and his Primary Sub-source…”

This issue was material enough that Stuart Evans, the National Security Division’s then-deputy assistant attorney general, claimed that “had OI been made aware of the information, such discussions might have included the possibility of foregoing the renewal request altogether.”

#Horowitz summed up the accumulation of material errors concerning the @CarterWPage #FISA application and the 3 renewals by noting that “information that was known to the managers, supervisors, and senior officials should have resulted in questions being raised regarding the…

…reliability of the #SteeleDossier reporting and the probable cause supporting the FISA applications, but did not.”

The #IGReport found fault with the entirety of the @FBI who had any involvement in the Page #FISA process.

@FBI The #IGReport also noted that #Spying on the Trump campaign didn’t begin when the @FBI opened its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign on July 31, 2016, but had, in fact, begun much earlier. theepochtimes.com/horowitz-repor…

In another material revelation, the #IGReport noted that then-Attorney General #LorettaLynch testified that she was actually briefed in the spring of 2016 by both @Comey and Deputy FBI Director #AndrewMcCabe regarding @CarterWPage:

@Comey @carterwpage #LorettaLynch told #Horowitz that she “believed they [Comey & McCabe] learned [this information] from another member of the Intelligence Community.

.@CarterWPage, who recently disclosed that “he was a CIA asset who put his life at risk for the U.S.” also said “he has a team of attorneys looking over the…report for subjects of potential lawsuits, claiming that his reputation was badly damaged by the Russia investigation.”

Given @CarterWPage’s revelation that he was a @CIA asset, one is left to wonder if the “member of the intelligence community” that Lynch referred to related to a leadership official within the #CIA.

Worth noting is the fact that the spring of 2016 is the same period in which…

…then-@CIA Director @JohnBrennan began passing unofficial foreign intelligence relating to the Trump campaign to the @FBI.

#Brennan testified that any info, specifically “anything involving the individuals involved in the Trump campaign, was shared with the bureau [FBI].”

#Brennan also admitted that it was his intelligence that helped establish the @FBI investigation:

@FBI #JamesClapper, who served as director of National Intelligence during the @BarackObama administration, personally confirmed foreign intelligence involvement in the spring of 2016, during congressional testimony in May 2017:

Notably, #JohnDurham is expected to seek an interview with #Brennan and #Clapper, following a recent expansion of his investigation.

A material email #Fabrication by attorney Kevin Clinesmith of the @FBI’s Office of the General Council was used in a crucial part of the @CarterWPage #FISA renewals.

Clinesmith’s email alteration deliberately deleted the fact that Page had “a prior relationship” with…

…another governmental agency, and Clinesmith has reportedly been referred for criminal prosecution by #Horowitz for his actions.

The #IGReport noted:

The liaison directed #Clinesmith to “review the information that the other agency had provided to the FBI in August 2016.”

The #IGReport noted that the “August 2016 information stated that Page did, in fact, have a prior relationship with that other agency.”

When Clinesmith sent the liaison’s email to “SSA 2,” Clinesmith “altered the liaison’s email by inserting the words ‘not a source’ into it, thus making it appear that the liaison said that Page was ‘not a source’ for the other agency.”

As #IGReport notes, “Relying upon this altered email, SSA 2 signed the third renewal application that again failed to disclose Page’s past relationship with the other agency.”

It’s worth noting that despite some media portrayals of Clinesmith as a low-level attorney, he was actually “the primary FBI attorney assigned” to the counterintelligence investigation into alleged #Russian election interference beginning in early 2017. theepochtimes.com/fbi-lawyer-ref…

#Horowitz was asked about the email alteration made by Clinesmith that was used to substantiate @CarterWPage’s role in the @FBI’s submission to the #FISACourt during an exchange with Sen. @TedCruz, and Horowitz affirmed that Clinesmith’s actions were indeed accurate:

@carterwpage @FBI @tedcruz The #IGReport noted that @FBI had first attempted to obtain a #FISA on @CarterWPage in August 2016 but was denied because of insufficient evidence or proof that Page was “an agent of a foreign power” as claimed by the FBI:

#Horowitz noted that “officials told us the Steele reporting ‘pushed the [FISA proposal] over the line’ in terms of establishing probable cause, and…the Steele reporting played a central and essential role in the decision to seek a FISA order.”

In other words, the #SteeleDossier was effectively the only evidence the @FBI had that @CarterWPage was somehow “an agent of a foreign power.”

And this evidence ran contrary to the documented work that Page had done for another governmental agency.

The #IGReport noted that the #CrossfireHurricane team was “unable to corroborate any substantive allegations regarding Carter Page contained in Steele’s election reporting which the FBI relied upon in the FISA applications.”

The @FBI’s inability to verify #Steele’s information was not relayed to the Office of Intelligence or the #FISACourt in any of the Page #FISA applications as noted by the #IGReport:

@FBI This lack of corroboration was also verified by former @FBI Director @Comey, when he testified before Congress to the #FBI’s lack of verification of the #SteeleDossier:

@FBI @Comey This lack of corroboration was further noted by the #IGReport which concluded that #WoodsProcedures—which include the file of evidence underlying a #FISA application—were not properly followed by #CrossfireHurricane @FBI personnel:

@FBI @Comey #IGHorowitz recommended “that the FBI review the performance of the employees who had responsibility for the preparation, Woods review, or approval of the FISA applications as well as the managers and supervisors in the chain of command of the Carter Page investigation…

…including senior officials, and take any action deemed appropriate.”

“We believe that additional OIG oversight work is required to assess the FBI’s compliance with Department and FBI FISA-related policies that seek to protect the civil liberties of U.S. persons.”

Immediately following the release of the #IGReport, #AGBarr issued a statement of his own in which he made clear his displeasure over the actions taken by the @FBI in 2016 and early 2017 and that he believed that FBI officials had, indeed, misled the #FISACourt:

@FBI Following #AGBarr’s press release, U.S. Attorney #JohnDurham issued a statement of his own, noting that unlike the #Horowitz investigation, “our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department.”

#Durham also noted that his investigation was more inclusive and “included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.”

Durham concluded his statement by noting that:

#Durham’s last known visit to #Italy was made in late September 2019, indicating that his advisement to #Horowitz was made in the weeks immediately following Durham’s Italy trip.

/END/

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