Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham was outraged after reading the report from the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz. He called the DOJ/FBI behavior “criminal” and he wants to see people prosecuted.
Senator Graham said there are two views about the handling of the Russia-Trump probe with U.S. Attorney John Durham and Attorney General Bill Barr holding one opinion and Mike Horowitz another.
Mr. Durham said he has more information than Mr. Horowitz.
Graham is talking about Horowitz concluding that the origin of the probe with the “thinnest” of reasons was legitimate and that differs from the opinions of Durham and Barr.
The South Carolina senator said that even if we assume it started out okay, it “quickly became criminal.”
“The system quickly got off the rails, but in my view,” Graham said, “it became a criminal enterprise to defraud the FISA court, to deny American citizen Carter Page his constitutional right, and to continue an operation against President Trump…it was fundamentally flawed and unlawful.”
The DOJ and FBI went back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover and they “made stuff up, misled people,” Graham said.
THE SUB-SOURCE COULDN’T BELIEVE STEELE’S EGREGIOUS BEHAVIOR
Graham referenced p. 186-on of the Horowitz report where it goes back to the primary sub-source of the Steele dossier. The sub-source had people reporting to him and that made up the substance of the dossier.
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When the FBI identified the sub-source and interviewed he/she, the sub-source said s/he “had not seen Steele’s report until it became public that month and that he/she made statements indicating that Steele misstated or exaggerated the primary sub-source’s statements in multiple sections of the reporting. The primary sub-source told the FBI that basically this was rumor and speculation, hearsay, bar talk. He never believed Steele would use the information provided in any official document.”
Graham added, “That should have been a red light for the Department of Justice and the FBI.”
When Attorney General Barr talks about the Russia-Trump probe collapsing, he is referring to things like this, and certainly, he’s referencing the 17 egregious errors in the Carter Page FISA warrant.
Horowitz’s report was released Monday and is a 400+ page assessment of how and why the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) decided to investigate the Trump campaign and how the FISA warrants were obtained. The conclusions didn’t match the seriousness of the report, but there was plenty in the report to warrant further far more serious action.
Watch:
Graham says he wants to end the Senate impeachment trial quickly, although the President wants him to call witnesses like Adam Schiff. Graham said he won’t.
Schiff will just not appear or he will take the Fifth. It’s likely a waste of time.
Graham might be right, but the problem is he’s a bag of wind. He previously said he would call witnesses and schedule hearings to put the Democrats on the defensive and he hasn’t done it. He’s better at soundbites than taking action.
GRAHAM TOLD HANNITY MUCH THE SAME THING
He was also on Hannity.
The report suggests the investigation originated lawfully, but Graham isn’t buying it. He told Hannity it “became criminal pretty quick.”
“What I’m here to tell you and the American people is this: if it started legitimate, it became criminal pretty quick. Here’s what I’m going to say to Horowitz [the hearing is today]. Do you agree with me that in January 2017 after the sub source told the FBI and department of justice everything in the dossier is a bunch of B.S.? That’s when it became a criminal conspiracy … they told the court they were truthful and credible. At that point in time people in the FBI and the Department of Justice defrauded the FISA court, trampled on the constitutional rights of Carter Page and continued the surveillance of a duly elected president unlawfully …”
The origins of the Russia-Trump collusion probe began with alcohol-fueled gossip between a volunteer on Trump’s campaign and an Australian ambassador [a Hillary supporter].
“It’s a bunch of hearsay, gossip, and bar talk. It’s not reliable. I hope every American would agree that the proper thing for the FBI to do is to inform the court of exculpatory information. The wrong thing to do is to lie to the court about what the sub source told you…”
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