American Press

The recently released Inspector General’s report into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s review of Donald Trump’s campaign in the 2016 presidential election shows a very troubling pattern of deceptive investigative practices and repeated misleading information in getting warrants to spy on the campaign.

Every American who values his liberty should be concerned about the nation’s leading law enforcement agency allegedly using such flimsy and not provable evidence that may have broken the law and grossly violated the rights of the people investigated.

“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,” U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement responding to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 476-page report.

Horowitz was looking into allegations of abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Act to spy on a very low-level Trump campaign volunteer, as a way to turn the law meant to spy on foreign intelligence agents to spy on an American citizen, Carter Page.

Both Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham, who has an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter, publicly disagreed with Horowitz’s finding that the investigation into the presidential election was properly authorized and that there was no political bias in the investigation.

Durham’s response was, “I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report made by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

However, Horowitz by no means cleared the FBI.

He found the bureau made “at least 17 significant errors or omissions” in applications to the FISA court from October 2016 to the summer of 2017, including some that may have violated the FISA law.

Horowitz reportedly also made at least one criminal referral on a top government lawyer who deliberately changed information on the FISA application.

In addition, the application was signed by high-level FBI and Justice Department officials each time it was renewed, even though they knew later that the evidence was paid for by the Democratic Party and was not provable, another possible violation of the law.

It will be a sad day for America and liberty if the FBI and Justice department get away with allegedly violating the law and gross trample of the rights of American citizens.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz

Cliff Owen/AP Photo