IG Horowitz to testify about his report before Senate Judiciary panel in early December

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Monday that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is set to testify before his panel on the findings of the investigation into possible FISA abuses.

Horowitz is to appear on Dec. 11 to discuss the findings of his investigation into DOJ and FBI’s conduct during the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant process as it relates to the 2016 presidential election.

The announcement brings to an end speculation over whether Horowitz would be releasing his final report the first week in December, as expected.

“I appreciate all the hard work by Mr. Horowitz and his team regarding the Carter Page FISA warrant application and the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign,” Graham said in a release.

“Mr. Horowitz will be appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 11, where he will deliver a detailed report of what he found regarding his investigation, along with recommendations as to how to make our judicial and investigative systems better,” the GOP senator added.

In announcing the initial investigation in March 2018, Horowitz’s office said that it would “examine the Justice Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person.”

“As part of this examination, the [Office of the Inspector General] also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source,” the statement continued.

At the center of the probe are FISA warrants obtained by the Justice Department and FBI in 2016 to begin surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Horowitz was looking into the circumstances behind the FISA application and three renewals allowing the FBI to begin surveillance on Page — the applications relied on the unverified Fusion GPS dossier paid for by Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

There is also the issue of the FBI allegedly employing circular reporting to obtain the warrant on Page.

Investigative reporter Sara Carter said Horowitz’s report will be “damning,” reporting that it’s “expected to reveal that the FBI knew that [ex-British spy Christopher] Steele was leaking to the media but then used those media reports as separate evidence in their request for a FISA warrant.”

Carter said criminal referrals are likely and that the report will show the FBI handled Hillary Clinton’s campaign differently than that of President Trump’s campaign.

Among those likely targeted by Horowitz’s investigation are former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, appeared on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” to say Horowitz’s report is due out the first week in December and that criminal referrals are likely, adding that this explains the Democratic Party’s headlong rush to impeach President Donald Trump.

“The Democrats are racing to get to through this impeachment as quickly as possible,” Ratcliffe said. “It’s why we have eight witnesses and five hearings this week and we’re not doing any of the work because they know the inspector general report is likely to be damning about the origins of the 2016 investigation into the Trump campaign and the role that the Obama/Biden officials played in that.”

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