Strassel: IG report a triumph for Nunes, trouble for Schiff
The DOJ inspector general report is a devastating indictment of Steele, Fusion GPS and the 'dossier,' Fox News contributor Kim Strassel says.
Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel said Tuesday that the release of Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz’s report on the origins of the Russia investigation and the issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants for a Trump campaign official was a triumph for House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and trouble for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
“The reason that we actually know about this FISA abuse is because in early February 2018, Nunes, who was heading the House Intelligence Committee, put out a memo with these explosive revelations that the FBI had targeted [former Trump campaign adviser] Carter Page with surveillance warrants that the dossier from a rival campaign had been the basis for that, and that the FBI had not been straight up with the FISA court," Strassel told “Fox & Friends”.
Strassel spoke out less than 24 hours after Monday's release of the 476-page report. She blamed Schiff for much of the partisan divide surrounding the FISA report.
“This should have provoked bipartisan outrage," she said. "Instead, Adam Schiff came out immediately and said, 'No, that’s a bunch of hooey.' And in fact he puts out his own memo and he says no, nobody abused anything.”
DOJ WATCHDOG FINDS NO BIAS IN LAUNCH OF TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE, BUT UNCOVERS 'SIGNIFICANT' FBI ERRORS
“So now we’ve got the IG report and Adam Schiff owes the country an enormous apology for spreading a false misinformation,” Strassel added.
The inspector general found no intentional misconduct or political bias surrounding either the launch of the Trump-Russia investigation or the efforts to seek the controversial FISA warrant to Page in the early stages of that probe.
However, the report revealed that there had been at least 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in the Carter Page FISA applications.
“He [Horowitz] said he didn’t find any documentary evidence of bias,” Strassel said. “I mean, that’s basically saying he didn’t find an e-mail among FBI officials saying let’s take out Donald Trump.”
READ: DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL'S FISA REPORT
“And it’s not his job in the absence of that documentary evidence to guess at their motives," she added. "But instead what he did is he just laid out all of the facts and when you step back and you look at that fact pattern, I think it’s very hard for anyone to think that this wasn’t a deliberate attempt by the FBI to abuse its powers in aid of going after Donald Trump.”
Strassel also noted Tuesday that Schiff subpoenaed and released information that included Nunes’ phone records in connection with the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, calling it an “incredibly bad faith move.”
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“This is, as far as I know, the first time you have the head of an intelligence committee, using the powers of Congress to spy on a fellow member,” Strassel said. “And if that’s the standard we’re going to have going forward, if you think politics is ugly now, watch where this goes.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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