Department of Justice 57-year-old Inspector General [IG] Michael Horowitz continued his dive into FBI policies and procedures for the four-year period from June 2015 to present time when it comes to obtaining warrants to wiretap private citizens under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court. Reviewing 39 FISA applications from 2014 to 2019, Horowitz found all of them riddled with “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts,” raising real doubts about the legality of the FBI investigation into members of 73-year-old President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including his time in office from Jan. 20, 2017.. Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee March 30. Horowitz detailed how the DOJ and FBI violated its Woods Procedures designed to provide safety checks over the FISA process.
When Horowitz released his report Dec. 9, 2029, he did not rule out bias or conspiracy but said his report focused on FBI procedures, not whether certain FBI agents and officials actively sought to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign. Widely published texts and emails between former FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his lover former FBI Atty. Lisa Page reveal personal animus toward Trump, both denying that their views interfered with their jobs. Horowitz’s findings today confirm that the FBI and DOJ did not follow the Woods procedures designed to prevent illegal surveillance of private U.S. citizens. “At least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA application and many errors in the Woods Procedures,” Horowitz told the Homeland Security Committee. Horowitz promised the committee he would dive deeper to determine how far up the chain of command went.
Former FBI Director James Comey, fired by Trump May 9, 2017, told House and Senate Committees that there was no illegal spying on the Trump campaign, only a legal counterintelligence investigation. But if Horowitz’s findings are correct, the FBI abused the Woods Procedures to present fraudulent information to the FISA court for the purpose of obtaining warrants for electronic surveillance. Comey justified his investigation, claiming he had more probable cause that discredited “Steele Dossier,” bought-and-paid for by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Trump’s rival in 2016. Comey said he used other intel for “probable cause” to obtain warrants from the FISA Court but never produced anything. FBI called its counterintelligence investigation “Crossfire Hurricane,” a probe of the Trump’s alleged ties with Russia, something detailed in the Steele Dossier.
Horowitz found that Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former Atty. Gen. Sally Yates and former Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein signed off on the Woods Procedure to obtain FISA Court warrants to wiretap Carter Page and other members of Trump’s campaign. What’s especially disturbing is that Rosenstein, who appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller Special Counsel May 17, 2017, signed off himself on a FISA application to wiretap Trump campaign officials. When Horowitz looks at Yates and Rosenstein, it starts going up the chain of command to former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and former President Barack Obama. Trump has said for some time that Obama “illegally tapped his wires,” knowing that Crossfire Hurricane was approved by Lynch and Obama. There was only one purpose to Crossfire Hurricane: To damage Trump’s presidential campaign.
Horrowitz can’t jump to the logical connections between Yates, Rosenstein, Lynch and Obama. He can only look at the breach of DOJ and FBI procedures, not at why it took place. “The concern is that this is such a high-profile, important case. If it happened here, is this indicative of a wider problem—and we will only know that when we complete our audit—or is it isolated to this event,” Horowtiz told lawmakers. Democrats and their friends in the media 100% backed Comey, Mueller and the FBI, alleging Trump was obstructing justice by threatening to fire Mueller. No one at the New York Times or Washington Post gave any credence to the FBI breaching its own procedures to illegally wiretap the Trump campaign. All the mainstream press gave Comey and Mueller only high marks for investigating Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin, even though Mueller found none.
Horowitz has been very careful not to draw any conclusions about the apparent breaches of the Woods Procedures by the DOJ and FBI while obtaining warrants from the FISA Court of wiretap the Trump campaign. “While our review of these issues and follow-up with the case agents is still ongoing—and we have not made materiality judgments for these or other errors or concerns we identified—at this time we have identified an average of 20 issues per applications, with the high of approximately 65 issues in one application . . . “ Horowitz’s report said. Violating the Woods procedures by the FBI and DOJ is a big deal. It’s the only safeguard against the departments abusing constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Comey’s FBI took its orders from the Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department, which in turn followed Obama’s orders.
