FBI official under investigation for allegedly altering document in Russia probe

[ziggy]

An FBI official is being investigated after allegedly altering a document connected to surveillance of a 2016 Trump campaign aide, CNN reported Thursday, citing people briefed on the matter.

The alleged altering was reportedly discovered as part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's probe into whether the FBI followed the law and its own policies while applying for a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign official Carter Page during the 2016 election.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said this week that a report of Horowitz's findings was expected to be released Dec. 9.

CNN reported that Horowitz gave the allegedly changed document to John Durham, who is leading an investigation into the origins of the government's Russia probe. The document is one focus of Durham's criminal investigation, according to the news network.

Sources told CNN that a witness admitted to the change after being confronted by Horowitz's team about the document. Whether the FBI employee still works for the bureau and their rank and identity are reportedly unknown.

It is also reportedly unknown whether the document in question played a significant role in the investigation of Page.

The inspector general's office in March 2018 announced that it would review the FBI's compliance with surveillance requirements amid Republican claims that there was an abuse of power relating to the monitoring of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department and FBI for comment.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-...ng-document-in

[ziggy]

[Stretch]

Color me SHOCKED! CNN is actually reporting this!

***************************

Exclusive: Former FBI lawyer under investigation after allegedly altering document in 2016 Russia probe
CNN Digital Expansion 2018 Katelyn Polantz
Evan Perez byline

By Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 8:57 PM ET, Thu November 21, 2019

Washington (CNN)A former FBI lawyer is under criminal investigation after allegedly altering a document related to 2016 surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser, several people briefed on the matter told CNN.
The possibility of a substantive change to an investigative document is likely to fuel accusations from President Donald Trump and his allies that the FBI committed wrongdoing in its investigation of connections between Russian election meddling and the Trump campaign.
The finding is expected to be part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's review of the FBI's effort to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide. Horowitz will release the report next month.
Horowitz turned over evidence on the allegedly altered document to John Durham, the federal prosecutor appointed early this year by Attorney General William Barr to conduct a broad investigation of intelligence gathered for the Russia probe by the CIA and other agencies, including the FBI. The altered document is also at least one focus of Durham's criminal probe.

It's unknown how significant a role the altered document played in the FBI's investigation of Page and whether the FISA warrant would have been approved without the document. The alterations were significant enough to have shifted the document's meaning and came up during a part of Horowitz's FISA review where details were classified, according to the sources.

Some witnesses who have been interviewed in Horowitz's investigation have said they expect the inspector general to find mistakes in the FBI's handling of the FISA process, but that those mistakes do not undermine the premise for the FBI's investigation.
American intelligence agencies and the Justice Department have not swayed from their finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking the Democrats and spreading pro-Trump propaganda online. And even former top Trump campaign officials have corroborated special counsel Robert Mueller's finding that the Trump campaign planned some of its strategy around the Russian hacks, and had multiple contacts with Kremlin-linked individuals in 2016.
Horowitz's investigators conducted more than 100 witness interviews in their review. During one of interviews this year, they confronted the witness about the document. The witness admitted to the change, the sources said.
The lawyer, who was a line attorney, is no longer working at the bureau, said a person familiar with the matter. A line attorney is a lower level lawyer within the FBI.
No charges that could reflect the situation have been filed publicly in court.
The Justice Department and inspector general's office declined to comment.

Horowitz report
Horowitz is expected to release his report on December 9 and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee two days later.
The internal, independent investigator so far, over several reports, has criticized top members of the FBI for their actions leading up to and during the Russia investigation. Those IG reports have looked at situations including former FBI Director James Comey's handling of his personal memos about meetings with the President and former official Peter Strzok's anti-Trump text messages.
A finding of alleged wrongdoing from Horowitz could further fuel Republican criticism and conspiracies about previous investigators' targeting of Trump associates. It could also provide them a political boost at a moment where Democrats' impeachment investigation into Trump's political quid pro quo with Ukraine has battered the President.
The report is said to cover the FBI's approach to foreign surveillance during the Russia investigation, including of warrants used to wiretap Page, who had advised the Trump campaign in 2016. Witnesses are currently reviewing Horowitz's findings.
Horowitz has shared information from his review with Durham, CNN previously reported.

(Graham: Report on FBI's handling of Russia probe will be released December 9)

The Justice Department has been tight-lipped on outlining exactly what Durham has been looking at. But the attorney general himself said soon after appointing him that he was concerned officials acted inappropriately as they oversaw the counterintelligence probe of the 2016 Trump campaign.
Barr's embrace of these theories aligns with Trump's chief grievance that he was the victim of a "deep state" spy operation that has clouded his presidency.

The New York Times, CNN and other outlets have reported that Durham's investigation had become a criminal investigation.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect the official is a lawyer who is no longer with the FBI.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/21/polit...ion/index.html

***************************

RELATED.............

Graham: Report on FBI's handling of Russia probe will be released December 9
CNN Digital Rebranding 2015 David Shortell Photo: Jeremy Freeman
Anchor Muted Background

By David Shortell and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Updated 11:39 PM ET, Wed November 20, 2019

Washington (CNN)Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report into the FBI's handling of the Russia investigation will be released December 9, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said Wednesday night.
"It will be December 9th, you'll get the report," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News. "That's locked."
What the report says is unknown. But some witnesses who have been interviewed by the inspector general say they expect that it will likely reveal some missteps, though none that should be interpreted as undermining a legitimate investigation.
The timing of the release, pronounced imminent for months, could be a boon for Republicans amid the unfolding impeachment proceedings.

Launched in early 2018, the inspector general investigation centered on a series of warrants the FBI filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as it sought to investigate Carter Page, a onetime foreign policy adviser to the 2016 Trump campaign.
The warrants -- signed by top Justice Department officials, including former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein -- stated that the FBI believed Page "has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government," according to redacted copies the bureau released last year.
To bolster their request to the surveillance court, the FBI relied at times on claims about the 2016 Trump campaign collected in a dossier of unverified intelligence reports by former British spy Christopher Steele.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and his supporters have led a steady drumbeat of anticipation over the report, suggesting it will provide evidence of improper conduct by the FBI that undermines the credibility of the Russia investigation.

Investigators from the watchdog office reviewed more than 1 million records and conducted more than 100 interviews as part of the probe, and in recent weeks the Justice Department and FBI have pored over a draft of the report to determine the classification levels of the material, Horowitz has told lawmakers.
Horowitz will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 11 to discuss the findings of his report.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/20/polit...r-9/index.html

[Stretch]

[Stretch]

The clown show is over. THIS is the big news!
Cooooooooooomey!!!! Come out, come out wherever you are!

[Stretch]

Tick Tock.......17 days and counting

[dukkha]

The clown show is over. THIS is the big news!
Cooooooooooomey!!!! Come out, come out wherever you are!

maybe. Durham is the real criminal probe, but we'll see

[Stretch]

Scuttlebutt is that the dossier used to obtain the FISA was a forgery.

[Stretch]

maybe. Durham is the real criminal probe, but we'll see

Yes, but we all know how these investigations bleed into each other. Even the players are the same.
They just change their costumes when they play a different role in each act and scene of the "Coup Show."

[dukkha]

Scuttlebutt is that the dossier used to obtain the FISA was a forgery.

Steele is a fake?

[Stretch]

Steele is a fake?

Steele is real, but the dossier may be a forgery. He may have found this thing already written for other purposes sometime
in the past.........like a comedy skit somewhere or part of a book. Wouldn't that be a hoot if this was already a scenario written
somewhere else, by somebody else for another purpose?

[dukkha]

Steele is real, but the dossier may be a forgery. He may have found this thing already written for other purposes sometime
in the past.........like a comedy skit somewhere or part of a book. Wouldn't that be a hoot if this was already a scenario written
somewhere else, by somebody else for another purpose?

lol/ the dossier was passed around more then a bottle between a bunch of drunks

[Stretch]

The good news is that it is now in Durham's hands.

[Mr.Badguy]

Is this IT?

[Stretch]

Yup.