Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’ report on potential surveillance abuses by officials during the 2016 Russia investigation is still in the declassification process.
“The FBI and the DOJ are working together smoothly on the declassification process.”
President Trump, in response to reporters at the White House, speculated that the final report could implicate anyone, including former President Barack Obama:
“Now, we’ll see what happens. The IG report is going to come out soon, and we’ll see what happens. I think people – I know nothing about it, in terms of the report. … I’m waiting for the report like everybody else. But I predict you will see things that you don’t even believe, the level of corruption – whether it’s [James] Comey; whether it’s [Peter] Strzok and his lover, [Lisa] Page; whether it’s so many other people – [Andrew] McCabe; whether it’s President Obama himself. Let’s see whether or not it’s President Obama. Let’s see whether or not they put that in,” Trump said.
“Evidently, there’s an intra-agency debate and really a food fight if you will about the classification issues. Remember in the last report put out by Horowitz, there were only seven words or so that were redacted. The Democrats threw a fit that they couldn’t see the whole thing. This could have 10 to 20 percent of the report redacted,” former Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz said, referencing a previous report by Horowitz and speculating that Obama administration Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and ex-CIA Director John Brennan could be the reason for the delay.
Declassification is one of the last steps before a public release, with Horowitz and his team having completed their review and submitted a draft last month, the Inspector General also wrote: “We have now begun the process of finalizing our report by providing a draft of our factual findings to the department and the FBI for classification determination and marking. This step is consistent with our process for reports such as this one that involve classified material.”
Horowitz and his team have looked into and probed how former British spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier was used to obtain the FISA warrant for Carter Page, former Trump aide, in October 2016, alongside three renewals, and why the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC (Democratic National Committee) funded Steele, with the FBI regarding him and using news reports to increase his credibility.
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