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Inspector general testifies on FBI failures: Five takeaways | TheHill

posted onDecember 12, 2019
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Article snippet: Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz delivered scathing testimony Wednesday about the FBI’s missteps in applying for a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser.  Horowitz was grilled for nearly six hours by lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Republicans and Democrats using their time to advance competing narratives about the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.  Here are five takeaways from the hearing on the inspector general’s inquiry.    It was a bad day for the FBI  Horowitz’s testimony laid bare the extent of the breakdown in the FBI’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, a point Republicans repeatedly hammered. “I think the activities we found don’t vindicate anybody who touched this,” Horowitz said at the outset of the hearing when asked whether his report “vindicated” former FBI Director MORE. The inspector general reported a total of 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the applications to monitor Page, taking particular issue with applications to renew the FISA warrant and chastising the FBI for a lack of satisfactory explanations for those mistakes. “This has got to be fixed. At a minimum, somebody’s got to be fired,” Sen. MORE (R-La.) said. “There’s got to be a change in the culture, also,” Horowitz replied, seemingly agreeing with Kennedy’s assessment. Committee Chairman MORE (R-S.C.) cautioned lawmakers and ... Link to the full article to read more

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