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No political bias in Russia probe, watchdog to say
Inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report, which is due on December 9, will hold a low-level FBI lawyer responsible for altering an application seeking continuing of electric surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser, under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
A US justice department watchdog is reported to be ready to say shortly that FBI’s probe of the Russian interference in the 2016 elections was not motivated by political bias at the top but it will find systemic lapses in it, in the filing of surveillance applications.
Inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report, which is due on December 9, will hold a low-level FBI lawyer responsible for altering an application seeking continuing of electric surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser, under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A criminal investigation has been launched against the lawyer Another FBI employee, an agent, is expected to be blamed for carelessness.
But the report is not expected to find political bias in the ordering of the investigation into Russian meddling and whether it was coordinated with the Trump campaign, as has been alleged by President Donald Trump and his allies, who had been extremely critical of FBI’s leadership, former director James Comey, deputy director Andrew McCabe and assistant director Peter Strzok.
The FBI investigation was later taken over by Special Counsel Robert Muller, when went on to indict 34 people, including 36 Russians. The investigation led to the conviction of several senior members of the Trump campaign such as Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, who had gone to serve briefly as Trump’s national security adviser.
