because the individual subjects were believed to be prominent in a domestic political campaign. inspector general then explains the predicate information that was cited as the reason for opening fbi investigations into each of those people including flynn. quote, the opening electronic communication, the opening statement for the flynn investigation stated that there was an articulate factual basis that flynn may have wittingly or unwittingly been involved in activity on behalf of the russian federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security. the document cross referenced to the cross fire hurricane and flynn was an adviser to the trump campaign who had entities to russia and travelled to russia in december 2015. so, that s what the fbi did when it opened its investigation into flynn. was there anything wrong with
detail it doesn t read like a beautiful narrative. but we do actually get quite a compelling narrative about the initial the initial days of the investigation. and fbi being confronted with information that they believe was adequate predicate to start looking at something they knew was very sensitive. when you told the inspector general s office that the initial information you heard about why the fbi opened the investigation, this information from the australian government that somebody in the trump campaign appeared to have advanced knowledge of what russia had done, according to the report, you said that resonated with you. what did you mean with that? what gets lost at times, we have been living for weeks and months for the fbi cybercampaign for the election. we already knew there was an intense state sponsored effort by the russian government to subvert our election.
them. flynn has switched to a different legal team, a fox news pundit legal team. the legal team has made over the top allegations about the evil justice department and evil fbi and innocent mike flynn being targeted by deep state, and the fbi themselves being the real criminals. sentencing was delayed again because his new lawyers said there was this inspector general report at the justice department which would shed important new light on the bogus case against mike flynn. the judge in flynn s case, the same one who sent him away a year ago and said you might want to help yourself more before you hear the sentence. that same judge agreed to once again delay flynn s sfentencing until after the inspector general s report came out so everybody could see what the inspector general concluded about the propriety of the case,
russia investigation finding that there was not political bias or other improper considerations that led the justice department and the fbi to open up investigations of russia interfering in our election the joining us once again is david laufman, the former head of the counter intelligence inside the justice department under president trump and the first year under president obama and the first year of president trump s turn which means he was there at the outset of the russia investigation. david, i wanted to ask you about the response to this report today. we just discussed the fact that attorney general william barr put out a statement essentially contesting the findings of his own department of the inspector general but there was also a second statement from john durham, the u.s. attorney for connecticut who has been additionally tasked by attorney general william barr with looking into other elements, a criminal investigation into the russia investigation. . if you think barr s
that is one of the sections of the inspector general report that discusses you, and your involvement at the outset of the russia investigation. let me just ask you whether you take any issue with the way that you appear in this report and how you feel about it overall. i m fine with their mention of me. i mean, i think this is a predijous piece of work that reflects on the inspector general and their team. there are a number of serious flaws and irregularities in the fisa process. the fbi as you said is going to embrace those and commit to reforms that the department of justice will support but on the key issues, the grievances by congressional republicans who asked for this investigation that this was a witch hunt, that this was spying on the campaign. this was an effort to, you know, foment a coup, there could not be a more utter and complete