The FBI’s application for a warrant to surveil a Trump campaign adviser was fraught with errors, omissions and uncorroborated information, the Justice Department Inspector General said in a bombshell report Monday.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz said FBI agents working on the investigation into alleged ties between President Trump and Russia failed to ensure the information in the application for a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was “scrupulously accurate.”
He called the errors “serious performance failures” by both agents running the investigation and the top FBI brass supervising the probe, though he said his lengthy investigation did not find political bias in the bungles.
“We identified multiple instances in which factual assertions relied upon in the first FISA application were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the application was filed,” Mr. Horowitz wrote in the nearly 440-page report.
He said former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, both of whom signed off on warrant applications, were unaware of the inaccuracies.
In particular, Mr. Horowitz dinged the FBI for failing to corroborate allegations made by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, whose salacious and unverified dossier was used to obtain the surveillance warrant.
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FBI agents working on the Russia investigation omitted information that contradicted some of Mr. Steele’s most damning allegations, Mr. Horowitz found.
Agents failed to tell the FISA court that one of Mr. Steele’s sub-sources had offered details that raised “significant questions” about the reliability of his information, the report said.
They misled the FISA court on whether Mr. Steele’s past information was reliable. Agents told the court Mr. Steele’s prior reporting had been “corroborated,” when the FBI itself described his information as “minimally corroborated.”
Attorney General William Barr said the FBI’s actions were “a clear abuse of the FISA process.”
“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,” he said in a statement.
Despite the missteps, Mr. Horowitz said it is not clear if complete information would have resulted in a different outcome. But he did conclude the omissions resulted in 10 separate errors in the FISA renewal.
The report’s findings will give plenty of ammunition to Mr. Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill. Mr. Horowitz is scheduled to testify about his report before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the highest-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called for the FISA court to take action.
“Looks like the DOJ IG Report is clear that Republican FISA abuse memo from February 2018 was accurate and actually understated the FISA abuse the dirty cops engaged in,” he said in a tweet.
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