Watchdog report on Russia investigation to come out next month

A highly anticipated Justice Department inspector general’s report on aspects of the Russia investigation, including its origins and whether the FBI abused its surveillance powers, will be released early next month, according to a letter released Thursday.

The inspector general, Michael E Horowitz, plans to release the findings of his investigation Dec 9, “barring unforeseen circumstances,” he wrote in a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The report will bring to a close a nearly two-year inquiry into how law enforcement officials opened their investigation in 2016 into Russia’s election interference and whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired. Among the focuses of Horowitz’s investigators are how investigators obtained a secret warrant to wiretap a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, including the still-unclear extent of their reliance on research compiled into a now-notorious dossier by a retired British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats.

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, eventually took over the inquiry. He affirmed the intelligence community’s findings that Russia conducted a widespread, coordinated effort to interfere in the election, but he found insufficient evidence to charge any Trump associates with conspiring with the Russian operation to sway the election. He declined to say whether President Donald Trump obstructed the investigation itself.

Horowitz’s work will run more than 400 pages long, according to people briefed on the report. His findings, which are expected to criticize law enforcement officials, could also help explain why Attorney General William Barr directed a veteran federal prosecutor, John H Durham, to open an inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation.

Horowitz will release the report two days before he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his findings. “I look forward to answering the committee’s questions about our report,” he wrote in his letter to Graham.

The inspector general does not typically announce when he intends to make his reports public, but he has done so in some cases when he has agreed to testify about his work.

This fall, Horowitz told senators that he had shared a draft of the report with the Justice Department and the FBI so that the department could review it for sensitive information. He also said that he would most likely issue only one version of the report, rather than a classified and unclassified version.

“The goal from my standpoint is to make as much of our report public as possible,” Horowitz said in an October letter to Congress. “I anticipate that the final report will be released publicly with few redactions.”

As recently as this week, witnesses in the investigation had an opportunity to read and comment on portions of the draft.

There will probably be overlap between Horowitz’s conclusions and why Durham is investigating the origins of the Russia inquiry, one person who has been briefed on the report said.

Horowitz’s report is expected to explore whether the FBI followed rules and procedures as it examined possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Horowitz can recommend that the Justice Department open a criminal investigation based on his findings, but he cannot bring charges.

Durham has looked at many of the same decisions made by FBI officials and agents, according to people who have been interviewed by his investigators. Should he find sufficient evidence, Durham can bring criminal charges.

Barr said this spring that he believed that intelligence officials had spied on the Trump campaign, and he authorised Durham to investigate whether their actions were lawfully predicated. He has asked law enforcement officials overseas to cooperate with Durham.

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