Inspector General Michael Horowitz ’84 gave testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 11, two days after releasing a 434-page report reviewing an investigation opened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July 2016, according to a CNN article. The report released by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviews four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications and other parts of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” Investigation.
The OIG undertook the review to examine the actions of the FBI in its investigation opened in July 2016 looking into President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign officials and their potential involvement with the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 presidential campaign, according to the report. The investigation had been given the codename “Crossfire Hurricane,” per the report.
Horowitz earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University, graduating in ’84 as an economics major. After attending Brandeis, he went to Harvard Law School where he earned his Juris Doctor degree. Horowitz has been Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice since April 2012, according to Horowitz’s Department of Justice biography page. In his position as Inspector General, Horowitz oversees over 500 employees nationally to identify fraud and misconduct within the Department of Justice.
“I found that the economics major [at Brandeis] was a tremendous preparation for law school,” Horowtiz said when he returned to Brandeis last year. “I thought the whole experience at Brandeis in terms of what I got out of particularly economics and the teaching there prepared me well for the journey I ended up on.”
In Horowitz’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he backed the findings of the report stating that the Bureau was justified in opening its investigation back in 2016. Horowitz said, “the FBI received reporting from a friendly foreign government,” suggesting potential interactions between the Russian government and Trump’s campaign foreign policy advisor, George Papadopolis. The “friendly foreign government” stated that Papadopolis “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of a suggestion” from Russia that could assist in the election by anonymously releasing information which could damage Trump’s running mate—Hillary Clinton’s—campaign, according to Horowitz’s testimony.
Horowitz and his team found that Assistant Director Bill Priestap’s decision to open the investigation was “in compliance” with the Department of Justice and FBI policies, said Horowitz in the hearing. There was also no evidence of “contempt documentary” to influence Priestap’s decision, said Horowitz.
Horowitz said during the hearing, “[The OIG] found that the Crossfire Hurricane was opened for an authorized purpose and with sufficient factual predication.”
Though, Horowitz told lawmakers that the former bureau members involved in the investigation made major errors during the investigation and could not be vindicated, according to an article by the Washington Post. Investigators in the Crossfire Hurricane case failed “to meet their basic obligation with the FISA applications,” said Horowitz. The OIG team found “significant inaccuracies and omissions,” according to Horowitz. In total, the OIG team identified 17 inaccuracies in their handling of FISA applications, noted by Horowitz during the hearing.
Horowitz, during the hearing, reiterated information in the report about FISA procedures being set in place to protect the FISA application process from irregularities and abuse. Most importantly, according to Horowitz, in every FISA application there is a full and accurate presentation of the facts which should be “scrupulously accurate” according to the procedure. These measures were not met by the bureau’s investigative team for Crossfire Hurricane.
The Crossfire Hurricane investigation proposed obtaining a FISA application in August 2016 for Carter Page—another foreign policy advisor to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. This request was denied, though the investigative team reattempted getting a FISA application the following month due to alleged activities between Page and Russian officials, said Horowitz.
The error with the FISA applications made “the argument supporting probable cause stronger than it actually was,” said Horowitz. In addition to the FISA application errors, Horowitz mentioned his team’s findings of “basic fundamental and serious errors” made during the Wood’s Procedures—which is the FBI’s factual accuracy review. These errors caused department lawyers not to be presented with complete and accurate information to evaluate probable cause to decide whether surveillance should be put on a person tied to a presidential campaign, according to Horowitz. Surveillance had been put on Carter Page despite the fact that the department was receiving intelligence which weakened the assessment, according to Horowitz.
Horowitz testified that there was no documentary of intentional misconduct, though there is no explanation for the errors found in the basic procedures.
After Horowitz’s prepared remarks, both Democrats and Republicans of the Senate Judiciary Committee were allowed to question Horowitz. Senator Rick Scott of Florida asked where the oversight during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was and if there had ever been spies from the FBI in other presidential campaigns. Horowitz said that the OIG did not look into other investigations conducted by the FBI during prior presidential campaigns.
To ensure that a situation similar to Crossfire Hurricane does not happen again, Horowitz said that there should be a change in the practice and policies between investigators and department lawyers before moving forward in the investigation.
