The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, will release his ‘long awaited’ report into the FBI’s Russia investigation next week. However, AG Billy Barr “has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department’s inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report — that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Billy Barr hand-picked Michael Horowitz to conduct the investigation.
Democrats have accused Billy Barr of acting as Trump’s personal attorney as opposed to the People’s Attorney General while Republicans cheer him on.
It’s not yet clear how Barr plans to make his objection to Horowitz’s conclusion known. The inspector general report, currently in draft form, is being finalized after input from various witnesses and offices that were scrutinized by the inspector general. Barr or a senior Justice Department official could submit a formal letter as part of that process, which would then be included in the final report. It is standard practice for every inspector general report to include a written response from the department. Barr could forgo a written rebuttal on that specific point and just publicly state his concerns.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department, the inspector general and the FBI all declined to comment.
The Washington Post:
In the event one encounters issues reading the article from the link posted above, The Hill has the condensed version.
Trump has said the inspector general report would prove that intelligence officers under Obama were “spying” on his campaign and abusing their power to prevent him from being president.
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