Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz declared a “failure” by the entire “chain of command” involved in the FBI’s initial Trump-Russia investigation, in blistering testimony Wednesday that called out “basic and fundamental errors” at the bureau while stressing that his newly released report on the probe does not "vindicate" anyone.
The tone of the testimony, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, ran counter to much of the coverage surrounding the report's release that zeroed in on a core finding that investigators found no evidence of political bias and were indeed justified in launching the 2016 probe.
Horowitz reaffirmed that finding, touted by congressional Democrats eager to defend the probe, at Wednesday's hearing. But his testimony as a whole amounted to a tough assessment of the bureau's actions -- and clarified that his two-year review on the Russia probe's origins and use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to surveil a Trump campaign aide did not close the book on the bias question either.
Under questioning, Horowitz said he could not outright determine whether bias was involved in the process of applying for a FISA warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page.
"Can you say it wasn’t because of political bias?" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked.
"I do not know," Horowitz answered. He also said he was "not ruling it out," regarding the possibility that bias influenced those decisions.
n the run-up to the report's release, a number of leak-based media reports focused on the no-bias finding, painting the picture of an IG report that largely would go easy on the FBI. But the actual document highlighted numerous errors and missteps in the process, while Horowitz himself was highly critical -- several GOP lawmakers argued Wednesday that the report was in no way an exoneration for the FBI, with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, calling such claims "crazy."
Former FBI Director James Comey essentially claimed vindication on Monday, declaring in the wake of the report that the criticism of the bureau's actions "was all lies" -- an assertion Graham brought up Wednesday.
"Is that a fair assessment of your report?" Graham asked Horowitz, citing Comey's vindication claim.
Horowitz bluntly replied: "I think the activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this FISA."
