Seem to have everything thats been a response to everything that the democrats have done. They announced impeachment charges, Michael Horowitz report. Bill barr is out there. Articles are introduced. Horowitz testifies today. On one hand they get exactly what they want. They create sort of confusion about mueller, the obsession to get trump. That story is out there. It seems as if this is part of a strategy the way the Trump Administration has used the government to respond to impeachment. Last night in hershey, pennsylvania, i was there, covering President Trumps rally. He talked about the ig report. He talked about the ongoing Impeachment Inquiry. He claimed that he was spied on. This is the counternarrative that has been building on the Trump Campaign, on the white house side, the Republican Party for a long time. When you read the igs report there was not an intention, according to horowitz, to spy. What was going on was Counterintelligence Investigation about possible russian interference in the 2016 election. As part of that investigation, they did have fbi assets that took stock of whether Trump Campaign advisers were being entangled with russia in any way. That was part of the Counterintelligence Investigation. President trump escalating this report into spying is making it a political weapon in 2020, and many of his advisers tell me its effective. Frank, it sounds like the fbi is being put on trial today. In a sense, it is. But its even larger than that. The neutral objective fact finder, the ig and the fbi pause you there. Geoff bennett has dianne feinstein. Lets go to her real quick, ranking member. Go ahead, geoff. Reporter she just walked in, chuck, but i asked her what she hopes democrats achieve with this hearing today and she said a full and fair exposition of the facts. She is among the senators straggling in here as this hearing hopefully starts somewhere from being on time. Totally get it. Frank, i interrupted you. I do feel as if youre going to see maybe thats what this hearing ends up being about, where half the questions are about defending the fbi. Feels like the fbi is going to be on trial. It will be a rough day for the bureau today. Really it will be a rough day for any neutral objective fact finder. The ig himself is on trial today. Its fact versus political opinion today. Youll hear the democrats keep coming back to the adequate evidence to open all of these investigations, yes or no. Yes, there was. And youll hear the republicans say well, i dont agree with that predication level. You made an important point to me off air while maya and i were talking. I dont understand why barr is putting himself in a position that jim comey put himself in. It may or may not be ready by spring or early summer, which directly ties to the Democratic National convention. Lets remind ourselves every time we watch a clip of the Pete Williams interview with ag barr, we are watching a violation of doj policy. How . Explain. A prosecutor cannot comment on a pending criminal matter unless theres a compelling Public Interest. What did barr hint at as the compelling Public Interest . I didnt want the public to be confused. Were more confused than ever. The ig report is what barr thought it was a compelling Public Interest to respond . The facts found by the Ig Merited Violating Doj Policy and coming out with a counter opinion. And the timing of the durham investigation is going to be hung over our heads until its convenient to come out. Chuck rosenberg, do you concur with frank that basically the Attorney General is committing the same error in judgment that jim comey did . He has the standard right, we dont talk about open investigations unless theres a public reason, public safety, warning people they may be at some risk and we have an ongoing investigation. Let me say one thing there, chuck, which i think is important. The fbi did make mistakes. Why . Well, actually, because its comprised of human beings. Human beings are fallible. Therefore, they make some mistakes. Do we need to fix stuff in the fisa process . Apparently so. We may need to tweak the guidelines and allow the fbi to have certain authorities in certain cases and certain instances, but none of that is surprising, right . Ask any Airline Pilot if shes had a perfect flight or any doctor whether he has had a perfect operation or any anchor whether theyve had a perfect broadcast. Thats not the way human beings operate. Havent had one yet. Of course not. None of us have. None of us will have a perfect day either. That said, there are things that we need to fix. Ari what jumped out at you reading this today, reading a statement . The bottom line here is they didnt find what made everyone interested in this report. People werent waiting to discuss the third and fourth round of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants. Its just not why everyone is interested. You could go back and pretend that the Trump Administration is stark with libertarians or members of the Senate Committee are really concerned about international wiretap abuse but they actually have a record of opposing those kind of controls. Indeed, political conservatives tend to back up any National Security surveillance of any kind. What you have is a lot of folks trying to pretend that the carter page piece of it, i interviewed him last night, that that is the big deal. In fact, thats the house thats left. Maya, you read this Opening Statement. Ill agree with ari, what were not talking about he is getting ready to take a seat. He will open by reminding us that the whole thing started in terms of Russia Investigation around a friendly government telling us that this conversation had started with a Trump Campaign aide. So, thats really important on the question that were really talking about, which is not what this report is about, which is why it was legitimate and important for us to Pay Attention to what was happening in our elections. Thank you all very much. We will let the hearing go. Mr. Horo with. Itz, thank you. I really appreciate what you have done. Do you have your team here with you . Yeah. Would it be okay if they raise their hands . Would that be all right . If theyre okay with it, im okay with it. Thank you all. You have labored hard and your work product is impressive. And i just want to thank you all for what youve done for the country. And mr. Horowitz, im dying to hear from you. I havent made 20 minutes of Opening Statements in a year but ill take a little longer to try to lay out what i think is before us as a nation. Crossfire hurricane was probably the best name ever given to an investigation in the history of investigations, because i think thats what we wound up with, a crossfire in a hurricane. Theres been a lot of media reports about your report before it was issued. And i remember reading all these headlines. Lawful investigation with a few irregularities. Everything okay. People got off track. If thats what you get out of this report, you clearly didnt read it. If thats your takeaway that this was lawfully predicated, you entirely missed the report. How do you get a headline like that . You want it to be that and nothing more. And i can assure you if this had been a democratic president going through what President Trump went through, that would not have been the headline. The headline would be fbi takes law into its own hands, lied to court. Ignored exoneration. So the first thing i want you to know is how the cake is baked here. And my goal is when this is over, whether you like trump, hate trump, dont care about trump, you look at this as more that happen a few irregularities, because if this becomes a few irregularities in america, then god help us all. Now, the people that were in charge in this investigation were hand picked by mr. Mccabe, who is now a cnn analyst, high up in the fbi, the number two guy. The first question i will ask in a bit, is this the best of the best . Are these people normal representatives of their department of justice and the fbi . I hope you say no because i believe it to be no and if i believed otherwise, i would be incredibly depressed. So, ladies and gentlemen, im going to assume something for the sake of argument. That there was a lawful predicate to open up a Counterintelligence Investigation. And i want you to know that the standard to open one up is about like that. I also want you to know that a Counterintelligence Investigation is not a criminal investigation. Theyre not trying to solve a crime. Theyre trying to stop foreign powers from interfering in america. That a Counterintelligence Investigation is designed to protect americans from foreign influence. I want the American People to know there was an effort to affect Hillary Clintons campaign by foreign actors. The fbi picked up that effort. They briefed her about it and they were able to stop it. We will be receiving a defensive briefing tomorrow as a committee from the fbi to tell us all about what we should be watching for, and they may be some specific threats against us, i dont know. But i know theyre going to brief us to protect us. Not just surveil us. Here is what i want every american to know. From the time they opened up Crossfire Hurricane to this debacle was over, they never made any effort to brief donald trump about suspected problems within his campaign. They had one briefing talking about, you know, the russians are out there. You better beware. Nothing about carter page. Nothing about papadopolous, nothing about the other people that they thought might be working with the russians. Why did they not tell him that . I hope you can give us an answer. Bottom line, Counterintelligence Investigation is a good thing until it becomes a bad thing. Because it doesnt take much to open one. The worst thing that can happen is for people to open one up whose best interest is not to protect an american but investigate one. Senator feinstein, a longtime employee was suspected of having ties to a Foreign Government. They informed her and she took appropriate action. How easy would it be for somebody to come in our campaigns as a volunteer, we really dont know who they are. You appreciate any help you can get. How easy it would be for all of us to get caught up in this scenario . I hope all of us would appreciate if you really believe theres somebody in my Campaign Working with a foreign power, please tell me. So i can do something about it. Why didnt they tell trump . Well figure that out later. I think its a question that needs to be asked. For a moment lets assume there was a lawful predicate to open up a Counterintelligence Investigation. Whats been described as a few irregularities becomes a massive Criminal Conspiracy over time to defraud the fisa court, to illegally surveil an american citizen and keep an investigation open against a sitting president of the United States, violating every norm known to the rule of law. Many of your prosecutors, many of you have been u. S. Attorneys. Many of you have been defense attorneys. Trumps time will come and go. But i hope we understand that what happened here can never happen again, because what happened here is not a few irregularities. What happened here is the system fail failed. People at the highest level of or government took the law into their own hands. When i say defraud the fisa system i mean it. Abuse of power i never believed would actually exist in 2019. How bad is it . It was as if j. Edgar hoover came back to life. The old fbi, the fbi that had a chip on its shoulder and wanted to intimidate people and find out what was going on in your life and the law be damned. Martin luther king, and just fill in the names. So, who ran this thing . The people were hand picked by mccabe, number two guy at the fbi, Deputy Assistant director of counterintelligence peter strzok, a big player in all thing things Crossfire Hurricane. Lisa page. You may have heard of her. Who was she in an fbi lawyer working for mccabe. These are two central characters in this debacle. Let me tell you a little bit about who these people are. And where theyre coming from. Thanks to a lot of hard work by people from mr. Horowitz, the fbi and others, here is what we know. Strzok, the frontline supervisor, february 12th, 2016. Hes trump, abysmal. I keep hoping the charade will end and people will just dump him. The problem then is that rubio will likely lose to cruz. I never quite made it. I can understand why they would not consider me a serious candidate. The Republican Party is utter shambles. When was the last competitive ticket they offered . March 3rd, 2016. Page. God, trump is a loathsome human. Strzok. Oh, my god. Hes an idiot. Newsrooms nt all over the country people are nodding this represents the attitude of a lot of people in america and you can have that attitude, but you shouldnt be in the journalism business. You shouldnt be at the fbi. If you were in the military and you said anything like this about a commander in chief, you would be charged with a crime. Remember the Mcchrystal Debacle where they had a bar room discussion with a reporter from the Rolling Stone . Whats takeaway . Dont go to a bar with the Rolling Stone reporter. They were talking about how they dont like joe biden. I was the first to say that is out of bounds. You can have all the political opinions you want. If youre an officer in the United States military, you will park those opinions and you will not speak ill of the commander in chief. But that obviously is not a rule at the Fbi Department of justice. March 16th, 2016, i cannot believe donald trump is likely to be actual serious candidate for president. July 16th, were getting closer to when this thing opens, and while donald trump is an enormous douche. Again a lot of people agreed with that. The first thing out of his mouth was were going to win so big. The whole thing is like living in a bad dream. July 19th, 2016. Trump is a disaster. I have no idea how destabilizing his presidency would be. And a lot of people believed that. Youre entitled to believe that, but you should not be an investigator. July 30th, the investigation is open. And damn this feels momentous, about the investigation, because this matters. The other ones did, too, but that was to ensure we didnt f something up. This matters because this matters. So super glad to be on this voyage with you. I hope you understand what this voyage was about. August 8th, 2016. Three days before stzrok was named the front line supervisor. He will never become president , right . Page to strzok. No am, he wont. Well stop it. These are the people in charge. August 15th, 2016, i want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in andys office that theres no way gets elected but im afraid we cant take that risk. That the American People will pick their president. Its like an Insurance Policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40. August 26th, 2016. Just went to a southern virginia walmart. I could smell the trump support. People in charge. October 11th, 2016. Currently fighting with stu for the fisa. Stu was a lawyer who thought this thing was not on the up and up. Stood his ground until He Couldnt Stand It anymore. Eventually got run over. October 19th, im all riled up. Trump is an fing idiot, unable to provide a coherent answer. New york times Probability Numbers are dropping every day. Im scared for our organization. November 3rd, 2016. Oh, my god this is fing terrifying, referencing an article entitled a victory by trump remains possible. November 9th, 2016. Rougher going to give out your calendars . Some kind of depressing. Maybe it should be the first meeting of the secret society. November 13th. I brought all the i bought all the president s men. I figure i needed to brush up on watergate. November 13th, 2016. Finally two pages away from finishing all the president s men. Page to strzok, do you know the president resigns at the end. Strzok. What . God, that would be so lucky. May 18th, 2017, the date page accepted a position on the special counsels team. For me, in this case, i personally have a sense of unfinished business. Im leashed with nye, whatever that means. Now i need to fix it and finish it. Strzok, who gives an f . One more Assistant Director or whoever, an investigation leading to impeachment. May 2017. You and i both know the odds are nothing. If i thought it was likely, i would be there, no question. I hesitate in part just because of my gut sense and concern there is no big there there, talking about impeachment. May 22nd, 2017. Im torn. I think no, im more replaceable than you are in this. Im the best for it, but there are others who can do it okay. Youre different and more unique. This is yours. Talking to page. All right. Thats the front line supervisor and the lawyer to mccabe. There is a Guy Named Klinesmith who eventually alters an email to the cia from the department of justice and fbi and mr. Horowitzs team found this out. How they did it, i will never know. Im jumping ahead here. But when you read this report, what they find is that a lawyer supervising the fisa process at the fbi, according to mr. Horowitz, doctored an email to the cia and fbi and will be referred for criminal prosecution. Why is that important . Carter page, who has been on the receiving end of all of this, the foundation to believe he was a Foreign Agent comes from a dossier that well talk about in a minute, provided by christopher steele, and well talk about him in a minute. They claim carter page meets with three people known to be russians. Russian agents. People associated with russia. Carter page, while being wiretapped by his government, says i dont know two of these people and to this day, there is no proof that he ever met two of those three. The third person, he says, yeah, i met him. I told the cia about my meeting because i was a source for the cia. So they would have you believe that carter page is working against our government not with our government. So carter page, in the summer of 2017, is trying to tell anybody and everybody, i was working with the cia. I reported my contact with this pers person, and nobody believed him. The cia had told the fbi it was true earlier, but it never made it through the system. Somebody got so rattled at the fbi, they asked mr. Klinesmith to check it out. He checks it out. He communicates with the cia. Is carter page a source for you . In an email exchange they say, yes, he is. What does mr. Klinesmith do . He alters the email to say no, hes not. And you caught him. I dont know how you caught him, because you got to dig into this email chain. It would be like getting a lab report from the fbi, the Fingerprints Dont Match and the agent says they do. Thats how bad this is. So now let me tell you a little bit about mr. Klinesmith if i can find it. Do you have the klinesmith stuff . Okay. This is the lawyer supervising the fisa warrant process, the guy that altered the cia email because he didnt want the court to know that carter page was actually a source. Why does that matter . Because if the court had known, then theres a lawful reason for mr. Page to be talking to the russian guy. He wasnt working against his country. He was working with his country, which undercuts the idea hes a Foreign Agent. Thats why klinesmith lied, because he didnt want to stop this investigation. All right. This is after the election. I am so stressed about what i could have done differently. The day after the election. Im just devastated. I cant wait until i can leave today and just shut off the world for the next four days. Im sure a lot of people felt that way after trump got elected, maybe still feel that way. But you shouldnt be in charge of supervising anything about donald trump if you feel that way. I just cant imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress weve made over the last eight years. The obama administration. The crazies won finally. This is the lawyer that they put in charge of supervising the warrant process. Im sure there are newsrooms across america that are saying that is absolutely right. What is wrong with that . Also, pence is stupid. Whatever. This is what the guy is saying right after the election. And its just hard not to feel like the fbi call s caused some of this. It was razor thin in some states. Plus my goddamn name is all over the documents investigating trump staff. We have been listening for this much awaited presentation of a doj report on the origins of the russian probe. Im ari melber here in our msnbc headquarters. Our panel of experts is back with me. Ill tell you exactly what were going to do. As soon as the Inspector General speaks, well go back into the hearing. I want to turn to senator claire mccaskill. I want to get a context of what were hearing. Obviously the chairman has a strong view, not only of the report but going beyond the four corners of the report to make his case. What are you hearing . Whats the context and what fact checks do people need to make in mind as he makes a case that goes well beyond what the report found, which is no buy as ias. Lindsay is a good lawyer. He knows who present an Opening Statement. He is doing a good Opening Statement that is trying to take things out of context and elevate exchanges between people who, frankly, had a personal relationship and were expressing personal opinions when theres no evidence that it impacted their work. And the other thing i would say about this is lets just think for a moment. I know Lindsey Graham pretty well, or at least i thought i did. If, in fact, the fbi was investigating somebody, which they were, manafort, before he came to work on the Trump Campaign, and they were investigating him for getting a lot of money from russian influence, okay, and then he went to work on a president ial campaign and then, lo and behold, the platform gets changed at the Democratic Convention to more fully love russia, can you imagine what Lindsey Graham would be doing if the fbi had not opened an investigation . Lindsey graham would be screaming from the rooftops, youve got a russian guy who is taking millions of dollars from russia, who is going into the heart of a president ial campaign in the United States. We have evidence that russia is interfering in the election and, by the way, they even changed the republican platform. Of course you have to investigate. This is such hypocrisy on the part of Lindsey Graham. Frank, im curious what you think about the elevation of certain texts that have already been public in mr. Grahams opening, because you go to the fbi or any large organization, you may find republicans and democrats. You may find yankee and mets fans, you may find a whole range of views. The report goes through and methodically sifts all that evidence to reach a conclusion. What do you think of senator grahams effort here to sort of preset i should mention its a much longer Opening Statement than typical for this type of hearing, to preset for the audience what he thinks is really important before horowitz even testifies. What were hearing is not unexpected. It is disappointing. Instead of hearing a healthy discussion about policy and protocol, were hearing a rehashing of personalities. The reading of these texts. For example, lisa page. Lisa page, the Inspector General found, had absolutely nothing to do with the opening of any of these russianrelated cases, yet were hearing about texts related to her relationship with pete strzok. Lets slow down on that fact che check. Youre speaking about the person that the president has attacked, former fbi official suing the federal government over this. Theres a lot to be debated there and plenty of people would read this, or that text, and say they disagree with it or they dont like someone talking about their favorite candidate that way, be it trump or obama. Your point here, though, is that is not 20 or 10 relevant but zero relevance because she didnt open the probe . Lindsey is laying the foundation for bias and prejudice, saying these are the people who ultimately helped weigh in on these cases and look at their mindset at the time. The problem is that we should be having a discussion whether cases were properly opened following the rules and after the cases are open, do we need to change policy and procedures . So far, were not getting any of that substantive discussion. Frank figliuzzi, Senator Mccaskill giving us some views. Heidi pryzbyla In Washington joins us. Heidi, quite an Opening Statement thats still going. Wh as i told viewers, when we get to the watchdog actually testifying, well go back. What does this opening mean . Lindsey graham is ensuring that there will continue to be a cloud over the Russia Investigation, facts be damned in horowitzs report. Hes creating an Obstacle Court through those facts. He cant deny there was a lawful predicate for this investigation. He says yes, it was lawful but it doesnt take much to open t he goes through these text messages, that weve all known about for months and months, ari. When the news and report was that horowitz also uncovered series of protrump messages, which i bet if you dont hear it from Lindsey Graham, and you wont, youll hear it from some other member on the panel. This is a regurgitation about carter page, yes, he uncovered serious infractions related to those fisa warrants but carter page was not the basis for the opening of the Russia Investigation. It was intelligence gleaned from an australian diplomat who had met with George Papadopolous and the Inspector General concluded there was every lawful reason to open this investigation. Did not have to do with carter pag page. Senator Graham Revensed certain texts that referenced the candidates in the 2016 primary, ted cruz, marco rubio. Both are here in the senate. Cruz on this panel with an Oversight Function and senator graham himself. He made Self Effacing remarks that he wasnt seen as a big enough candidate to wind up in the texts. I wonder if you could walk our viewers through the politics that hangs overall of this with candidates who lost to donald trump, who are now trying to defend him and as you say are trying to carry water for a view of a quote, unquote, witch hunt even on the day of the testimony of the person who debunked it. Theres such a split screen, including ted cruz, become one of the president s most ardent defenders. We can talk about these texts and go back to the whole history of the campaign. There was a bitter rift between these two menace trump came after ted cruz in a visceral way about his father, implicating his own father and assassination of president kennedy, that he was somehow present there with that conspiracy theory, going after ted cruzs wife and her physical appearance and now you have ted cruz emerging as a very poignant book end in the transformation weve seen from this Republican Party from the campaign when you had everyone like Lindsey Graham, whose own statements can be turned back on him, calling the president a threat. Its striking, particularly as we watch the watchdog, horowi horowitz, who is not a Household Name but has become central to so many of these disputes. Up until this report dropped this week, he was seen as the great hope among many on the right for a Potential Resuscitation of bias at the fbi, he has done his job, debunked that. Waiting for his turn to finally present during this opener. Im going to fit in a little break. When we come back, well get to the meet of it when mr. Horowitz as well as democrats on the panel weigh in, following the Opening Statement you heard from Lindsey Graham. Keep it right here on msnbc. Linm keep it right here on msnbc. Unpredictable crohns symptoms following you . For adults with moderately to severely active crohns disease, stelara® works differently. Studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. Stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or flulike symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. 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Youre watching Breaking News of a muchawaited hearing on the doj watchdogs probe of the origins of the Russia Investigation, which ultimately turned into the mueller probe. Well bring you highlights as warranted, that are newsworthy. Senator claire mccaskill, maya wiley, frank figliuzzi. M maya, if they have not read the whole report and theyre hearing Lindsey Graham mention things that are either largely old, meaning disclosures, whatever you think of them, that are not new to this hearing or also pushing a theory we know and have been reporting the bulk of the doj report debunks, the idea that there was a type of bias that mattered. Were having a partisan politics conversation instead of a conversation about what we need to do to understand these issues that an independent Inspector General found need to be fixed. Thats what Congressional Oversight is about when its found theres need for Management Changes in any agency. Its a common problem. It happens all the time. The issue here is that there are articles of impeachment that are related to Donald Trumps abuse of power and now Lindsey Graham is trying to flip the script to say that the abuse of power is at the fbi, even though this independent Inspector General has said there was no bias that we could find. We talked to 170 some odd people and looked at all the documents and reminding us, in his Opening Statement, which we havent even gotten to yet, that the reason the russia probe was opened in the first place was because a friendly government tipped us off that russia was trying to interfer interfere. Another one of those major days of 2019 thats quite striking, there is a complete contrast here between the senate looking backwards to a 2016 origin probe that resulted in many convictions and resulted in bob mueller saying some things were ultimately helpful to donald trump, like he didnt find a chargeable election conspiracy. Take it if you want it. That was an outcome. It comes on the same day that the House Judiciary later today will begin formal consideration of these articles of impeachment. A connection for your viewers between what were watching right now and ultimately the impeachment in the Senate Hearings to come. Were watching a coming traction today in Lindsey Graham. Were hearing the attack that were likely to see in the senate trial during impeachment on the origins of the case. If you make that go away, if you undermine how the fbi worked this case, you make the whole russian problem go away. Its not accurate. Its not going to work. But were seeing a trailer, basically, on what the senate trial could look like. What i was thinking was you cant make ukraine go away. To the extent theyre trying to reinforce, to franks point, theyve just been out to get trump. This really has nothing to do. Theres nothing to see here about trumps abuse of power. What we should be doing is looking at our own Law Enforcement, our own national intelligence services, our own origins of democracy. I think we all agree Law Enforcement needs checks and balances. We need to ensure that Law Enforcement is not abusing its considerable power. Thats why we have mr. Horowitz sitting in that seat. What he has come to tell us, were not even hearing. As soon as we get a little more news from the hearing, Senator Feinstein giving the democrats response, well cover some of that, as we covered some of graham. Bob costa, im told, has been keeping in touch with his sources. Bob, what are you hearing . Talking to people close to President Trump and white house advisers, they are watching this hearing. They know that the ig report, mueller report, entire Impeachment Inquiry has cast a shadow and now along with Attorney General bar, republicans in congress fighting a political war against the department of justice and the fbi. Questioning in sharp terms its own conduct. And that is setting up this entire 2020 battle, which Many Democrats and some republicans privately feel is muddying the water about these important institutions in the country. Bob, because i have you and were watching this, walk us through where Lindsey Graham fits in as a former political nemesis of donald trump with a long record weve played on air of all the terrible things he called donald trump including, quote, race baiting kook, end quote, who has become one of his chief defenders and as a former lawyer and judge advocate general, he has proven more adept than some in the house. He is one of the most vocal defenders of the president , facing the threat of impeachment this week. Reporter there is an impression of senator graham being a friend of senator mccain and maverick on immigration. Thats only a sliver of senator grahams entire public persona. A few weeks ago at the Washington Post i reported that senator graham met personally with Attorney General barr to go over this ig report in its unveiling at a meeting at the department of justice. You see him working closely with the Attorney General and other allies of President Trump and not having second thoughts about pursuing this aggressive probe of the doj and ig report. He has been in lockstep. The explanation is possibly political. He has been working with President Trump since the start. He is someone who seems to be, his friends tell me, a True Believer. This is not just a political calculation. He has gone across the line in terms of truly being with President Trump on this front. I suppose that raises the question which you may or may not have to answer. Was he a True Believer when he said the opposite . Reporter its a great question. Is he someone who, like so Many Republicans have, accepted that President Trump has the Political Capital to dominate this party for now and in the future. He is not ready to contest that in any way. In that 2016 primary campaign in which senator graham ran, that was the last gasp for Many Republican leaders in terms of countering the trump politics. Bob costa, stay near your camera and newsroom if you will. Well keep watching these Opening Statements. I want to build on that point, Senator Mccaskill and bring you back in. Part of the suggestion there with reporting, that Lindsey Graham and bill bar plans this o out, return of the fourpage letter approach, something news viewers remember quite well. You dont have to worry whats in the report as long as you get ahead of it, repeat it and double down, you can get basically nullify a lot of the details. I see Senator Feinstein getting ready so booel take part of her time as we did the majority member. For 25 years. I have great appreciation for this Inspector General. I just want to make those personal remarks. This is a tough arena. And as you can see, there are very tough people in part of that arena. To have an Inspector General who tells it as they see it and does this year after year is a saving grace. And i hope people will get this report. If i have a grievance, its that the print is too small. I agree with that. Thank you very much. And it is heavy to carry around. But last year, this Inspector General pledged to congress that he would examine whether the fbi played a role to investigate ties between russia and the Trump Campaign. Inspector general kept his promise. His Office Conducted a 19month investigation. They interviewed more than 100 witnesses, reviewed more than a million documents and issued this 434page report that contains several important findings. First, on a question of bias, Inspector General horowitz found no evidence that political or antitrump bias was at play. According to the igs report the fbi complied with existing department and fbi policies in opening the investigation and the ig, quote, did not find documentary or Testimonial Evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced this decision, end quote, or any specific investigative steps taken by the fbi. Thats the finding. And this is important. Why . In public statements, beginning last spring, the Attorney General expressed his belief that senior Government Officials may have, quote, put a thumb on the scale, end quote, because of political bias against trump. His comments echoed the president , who has repeatedly alleged that there is a deep state within the government against him. He has used this to the entire Russia Investigation as a witch hunt and a hoax. The igs report conclusively refutes these claims. This was not a politically motivated investigation. There is no deep state. Simply put, the fbi investigation was motivated by facts, not bias. Secondly, the Inspector General confirmed that there was an adequate predicate, meaning a legitimate factual and legal basis to investigate. The basis was not, as some have claimed, the socalled steel dossier. In fact, reporting from mr. Steel played no role in opening the investigation. Instead this report confirms that the fbi opened the investigation after being told by as straul yeah, that trump adviser George Papadopoulos learned in the month of april that russia had and was willing to release, quote, information during the campaign that would be damaging to candidate clinton, end quote. The ig found that this information provided the fbi with a factual basis that if true, quote, indicated Activity Constituting either a federal crime or a threat to National Security or both may have occurred or may be occurring. The ig also found that when the fbi learned that in late july 2016 the bureau was aware of russian 40s efforts to enter cl in the 2016 elections including russian hacking of Democratic Campaign computers. Materials stolen by russia had been released online including by wikileaks, and the u. S. Intelligence community assessed in August Of 2016 that, quote, russia was considering further intelligence operations to impact and disrupt elections, end quote. Against this backdrop, the fbi was obligated to investigate possible ties to the Trump Campaign. According to bill precept, the fbi Assistant Director who authorized opening the investigation, other officials conveyed a similar obligation and sense of urgency to investiga investigate. David laugh man, a national division security chief said it would have been, quote, a dare ligs licks of duty and responsibility of the highest order not to commit the appropriate resources as urgently as possible to run these facts to the ground and find out what was going on, end quote. The decision to open the investigation was unanimous. Not a single official disagreed. As a result america ultimately learned extensive details about russias sweeping and systemic attack on the 2016 election including that the Trump Campaign knew about, welcomed and, quote, expected it would benefit electorally, end quote, from russias efforts. The Inspector Generals report also identifies several errors made by fbi and Justice Department line personnel when seeking parents for surveillance on carter page from the fisa court. Fbi Director Wray submitted a Written Response accepting the igs findings including the key finding that the fbi had sufficient cause to investigate the Trump Campaign ties to russia. Director wray also said that the igs findings of fisa errors are, and i quote, Constructive Criticism that will make us stronger as an organization and that he has already taken action to address the igs recommendations. By contrast, Attorney General barr issued a Press Release that continues to criticize the fbi for investigating the Trump Campaign. Its really extraordinary that the Attorney General continues to make unsupported attacks on the agency that he is responsible for leading. I believe strongly that its time to move on from the false claims of political bias, and those who showed great interest in the question of politically motivated investigations against President Trump should show the same concern about politically motivated investigations requested by the president or his Attorney General. Inspector general horowitz, i want to thank you on behalf of this side and your staff for the hard work. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Mr. Horowitz. Chairman graham, Senator Feinstein, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. The report that my Office Released this week is the product of a comprehensive and exhaustive review conducted over the past 19 months by an oig team that examined more than 1 million documents in the departments and fbis possession including documents other u. S. And Foreign Government agencies had provided to the fbi. Our team conducted over 170 interviews involving more than 100 witnesses, and we documented all of our findings in the 434page report that we issued this week. I would encourage everybody to read the report. Although i understand 400pluspage reports can be hard to get through. We have a pithy 19page summary with it which id encourage people to read at a minimum. I want to commend, also, the tireless efforts of our outstanding review team for conducting such rigorous and effective independent oversight. Its exactly what we are supposed to do as inspectors gener general. The fbi investigation the subject of this report Crossfire Hurricane was opened in july 2016 days after the fbi received friendly reporting from a Foreign Government. The reporting stated in a may 2016 meeting Trump Campaign Foreign Policy adviser George Papadopoulos, quote, suggested the trump team received some kind of suggestion, closed quote, from russia, that it could assist in the election process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to candidate clinton and then president obama. Following receipt of that information, the fbi opened Crossfire Hurricane. Given the nature and sensitivity of such an investigation, we would have expected fbi personnel to faithfully adhere to the fbis detailed policies, practices and norms. The fbi has developed and earned a reputation as one of the worlds premier Law Enforcement agencies in significant part because of its adherence to these policies and its tradition of professionalism, impartiality and nonpolitical enforcement of the law. However, our review identified significant concerns with how certain aspects of the investigation were conducted and supervised, particularly the fbis failure to adhere to its own standards of accuracy and completeness when filing applications with for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority known as fisa, to surveil carter page, a u. S. Person who was connected to the trump for president campaign. We determined that the decision to open Crossfire Hurricane was made by then fbi Counterintelligence Divisions Assistant Director Bill Pre Stap and his decision reflected a